A 2,000-ton North Korean cargo ship will dock at Thilawa port, 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Rangoon, in the next few days, an official at Thilawa port authority told The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The Kang Nam 1 left a North Korean port on Wednesday and passed along the coast of China. A US Navy destroyer has tracked the ship since its departure.

The same ship docked at the port in 2004, at that time raising suspicions about the nature of its cargo. Speculation centered on convention arms, missiles or some type of nuclear weaponry.

?Normally, North Korea cargo ships dock in Thilawa port,? the port official told The Irrawaddy.

The Burmese military government permitted a North Korean cargo ship, the Kang Nam 1, to dock in 2007 near Thilawa port because it reportedly was in distress and taking shelter from a storm. The docking raised suspicions about its cargo.

The government said that it allowed the Kang Nam to dock for humanitarian reasons. The true purpose of its visit might have had something to do with Burma?s goal of being a nuclear power by 2025, according to some military analysts.

In the past, there have been rumors circulating inside and outside Burma that North Korean nuclear technology specialists were in Burma, offering the junta nuclear and biological technology.

Military analysts say the North Korean Communist regime has provided Burma with weapons, military technology transfers and expertise in underground tunneling used for concealing military installations.

North Korea sold rocket launchers to Burma in 2008, in a deal that was brokered by an unnamed Singapore trading country in violation of the UN sanctions imposed against North Korea after it conducted nuclear tests in 2006.

Burmese-North Korean military ties were reestablished in 1999 when members of the Burmese junta paid a low-profile visit to the rogue state. The junta sent a delegation to North Korea secretly again in November 2000 for a meeting with high-ranking officials of North Korea?s People?s Armed Forces. A North Korean delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Park Kil-yon met with his counterpart, Khin Maung Win, in June 2001.

Burma and North Korea, two of Asia's most authoritarian countries, officially restored diplomatic ties in 2007, ending a diplomatic crisis after a bombing carried out by North Korean spies in 1983, part of an assassination attempt on South Korea's then-president, Chun Doo-hwan, during a visit to Rangoon.

North Korea has consistently angered its Asian neighbors and other countries with threats of missile launches, threats against South Korea and its on-gain, off-again nuclear program, prompting US and South Korean forces to raise their military alert status recently.

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SEOUL ? A North Korean-flagged ship under close watch in Asian waters is believed to be heading toward Burma carrying small arms cargo banned under a new UN resolution, a South Korean intelligence official said Monday.

Still, analysts say a high seas interception?something North Korea has said it would consider an act of war?is unlikely.

The Kang Nam, accused of engaging in illicit trade in the past, is the first vessel monitored under the new sanctions designed to punish the North for its defiant nuclear test last month. The US military began tracking the ship after it left a North Korean port on Wednesday on suspicion it was carrying illicit weapons.

A South Korean intelligence official said Monday that his agency believes the North Korean ship is carrying small weapons and is sailing toward the Burmese city of Rangoon.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitive nature of the information, said he could provide no further details.

Burma's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the US and the European Union, reportedly has bought weapons from North Korea in the past.

The Irrawaddy, an online magazine operated by independent exiled journalists, reported Monday that the North Korean ship would dock at the Thilawa port, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Rangoon, in the next few days.

The magazine cited an unidentified port official as saying that North Korean ships have docked there in the past. The magazine's in-depth coverage of Burma has been generally reliable in the past.

South Korean television network YTN reported Sunday that the ship was streaming toward Burma but said the vessel appeared to be carrying missiles and related parts. The report cited an unidentified intelligence source in South Korea.

Kim Jin-moo, an analyst at Seoul's state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the North is believed to have sold guns, artillery and other small weapons to Burma but not missiles, which it has been accused of exporting to Iran and Syria.

The UN sanctions, which toughen an earlier arms embargo against North Korea, ban the country from exporting all weapons and weapons-related material, meaning any weapons shipment to Burma would violate the resolution.

The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 UN member states to inspect North Korean vessels on the high seas "if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo" contains banned weapons or material to make them. But that requires approval from the North.

If the North refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel "to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities."

North Korea, however, is unlikely to allow any inspection of its cargo, making an interception unlikely, said Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank outside Seoul.

A senior US military official told The Associated Press on Friday that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Any chance for an armed skirmish between the two ships is low, analysts say, though the North Korean crew is possibly armed with rifles.

"It's still a cargo ship.

A cargo ship can't confront a warship," said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has been running high since the North's May 25 nuclear test, with Pyongyang and Washington exchanging near-daily accusations against each other.

President Barack Obama assured Americans in an interview broadcast Monday that the US is prepared for any move North Korea might make amid media reports that Pyongyang is planning a long-range missile test in early July.

"This administration?and our military?is fully prepared for any contingencies," Obama said during an interview with CBS News' "The Early Show."

Still, ever defiant, North Korea declared itself a "proud nuclear power" and warned Monday that it would strike if provoked.

"As long as our country has become a proud nuclear power, the US should take a correct look at whom it is dealing with," the country's main Rodong Sinmun said in commentary. "It would be a grave mistake for the US to think it can remain unhurt if it ignites the fuse of war on the Korean peninsula."

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RANGOON ? Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi thanked supporters around the world who sent her greetings for her 64th birthday last week while she remained in prison.

A spokesman for her political party, Nyan Win, said Monday the Nobel Peace laureate regretted she could not thank everyone individually. He said the well-wishers whose messages he delivered to her included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Japanese and Australian governments, France's foreign minister, and a US senator.

Suu Kyi is being held in Rangoon's Insein Prison while being tried for violating the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man swam secretly to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.

Lawyers met Suu Kyi and two of her companions at the prison Monday for two hours, Nyan Win said, and made preparations for their closing arguments, for which no date has yet been set.

Nyan Win said he delivered 50 packets of Indian-style Biriyani rice, chocolate cake and three bouquets of flowers to the prison for Suu Kyi's birthday last Friday but was not allowed to see her.

"She is very well," he said. "A doctor takes care of her health." Suu Kyi had been suffering from dehydration and low blood pressure just before being charged last month.

She treated her guards and the prison doctor to some of the food, he said.

Suu Kyi's trial has drawn outrage from the international community and local supporters who say the military government is using the affair as an excuse to keep her detained through elections scheduled for next year.

She has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention without trial, mostly under house arrest.

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RANGOON ? The United Nations' special envoy to Burma is due to visit the country this week to pave the way for a possible visit by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a diplomat said Monday.

Ibrahim Gambari is scheduled to visit Thursday through Saturday to lay the groundwork for a trip in early July by the UN chief, said a Western diplomat, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to announce the visit.

Burma's UN spokesman Aye Win said he could not confirm either visit.

Ban's trip would come after he visits Japan from June 30 to July 2. The UN spokeswoman in New York, Michele Montas, said last week that the secretary-general had not yet decided whether he would visit Burma during his Asia trip.

The upcoming visits would be politically delicate because of the continuing trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Nobel Peace Prize winner is in prison and being tried on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man swam to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days.

The UN has called repeatedly for political reconciliation in Burma, including the release of Suu Kyi. The country has been under military rule since 1962, and the junta refused to recognize the results of 1990 general elections won by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

Suu Kyi's trial has drawn outrage from the international community and from her local supporters, who say the military government is using the incident as an excuse to keep her detained through elections scheduled for next year.

If convicted, Suu Kyi faces up to five years in prison. She has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention without trial, mostly under house arrest.

Gambari has visited Burma seven times since becoming the UN's special envoy to the country in 2006. The visits have failed to nudge the military regime toward talks with the opposition.

Ban visited Burma after last year's devastating Cyclone Nargis and was instrumental in getting the isolationist government to allow more foreign relief workers into the country.


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The Burmese government has reinforced Burmese forces in Mong Tong Township, Shan State, due to growing tension with the United Wa State Army (UWSA), according to sources close to an armed group in Shan State.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Sai Sheng Murng, the deputy spokesman of the rival Shan State Army-South (SSA) said seven M120 120 mm mortars were sent to reinforce Burmese Infantry Battalion No 65 on June 20.

The battalion is based in Nakawngmu village, Pong Pa Khem Sub-Township, Mong Tong Township, in eastern Shan State, which is about 29 kilometers from the Thai-Burma border.

The source said the reinforcement may have been made in preparation for a possible military offensive against the UWSA if tension with the group continues growing.

According to a source on the Sino-Burmese border, the mortar reinforcements have been made close to UWSA military region 171, where Burmese army leaders have put pressure on the UWSA to withdraw from strategic positions in southern Shan State along the Thai-Burmese border. However, UWSA leaders have refused to withdraw its troops from the area.

The UWSA has rejected a request by the Burmese junta to turn their forces into border guards. The group, which is the most powerful ethnic armed ceasefire group in Burma, has 23,000 troops.

Mai Aik Phone, who is an observer of the UWSA, said the group was watching closely the current attempts by the Burmese military to transform ethnic armed forces into border guards. The UWSA, meanwhile, has warned its people to prepare for the worst. However, they said that they would try to negotiate with the Burmese government before fighting.

Due to heavy pressure on the Burmese government by the international community over the ongoing trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese government would be unlikely take any direct action against the UWSA for the moment, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, the Burmese Army launched a military offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) early in June. The joint troops of the Burmese Army and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) seized the headquarters of KNLA Brigade 7, which was a main base near the Thai-Burma border. The attack has forced an estimated 4,000 Karen people to flee to Thailand.

The Burmese junta is trying to transform all ethnic armed ceasefire groups in the country into border guards ahead of elections they plan to hold in 2010.

However, many ethnic armed ceasefire groups do not want to live under the control of the Burmese Army, and they have refused to disarm and become border guards.

Under the junta?s scheme, the Burmese military will have more control over the armed ceasefire groups. Each border guard battalion would consist of 326 troops, including 30 from the Burmese army. Three of these would be Burmese officers with administrative positions.

The Burmese military junta No. 2 Gen Maung Aye visited China to talk about the ethnic armed ceasefire groups in Shan State last week.

The Sino-Burmese border sources said that Gen Maung Aye failed to persuade China to put pressure on the groups. China refused to use its influence in the area because it wants a stable border in Shan Sate in order to run oil and gas pipelines through the area, according to the sources.

Beijing is scheduled to begin constructing the pipelines, which have to pass through areas of Shan State controlled by the ethnic armed groups, in September 2009.

Seventeen insurgent groups have signed ceasefire agreements with the ruling generals since 1989, according to official Burmese reports.

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Burma?s military junta has sacked the head of one of the key government departments involved in the Cyclone Nargis relief and recovery effort following allegations that he stole money donated for survivors of the disaster, according to reliable sources in Rangoon.

Than Oo, a former colonel who was serving as the director general of the Ministry of Social Welfare?s Department of Relief and Resettlement, was accused of stealing millions of kyat (several hundreds of thousands of dollars) from international donations intended for Nargis-related projects, the sources said.

State-run newspapers did not publish any information about the dismissal of the senior official, who was recently arrested and interrogated by the regime?s Bureau of Special Investigation, according to sources in Naypyidaw.

The Department of Relief and Resettlement cooperates closely with international donors providing aid for humanitarian relief and recovery work in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta.

?The Department of Relief and Resettlement is responsible for accepting funds and donations from international NGOs,? said a Rangoon businessman who runs a local relief organization for Nargis victims.

?The department is supposed distribute the aid to assist people hit by the cyclone. He was probably taken into custody because materials donated by international NGOs went missing,? he added.

Meanwhile, the Burmese junta is holding a secret meeting in its capital, Naypyidaw, where a number of other officials have also reportedly been reshuffled.

Burma?s top military leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has retired or reassigned around a dozen senior officials, according to military sources. However, The Irrawaddy has not been able to confirm the reports with other independent sources.

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(DVB)?Weighed down by state corruption, economic decline and vastly uneven development, Burma has ranked at the tail-end of this year?s Failed States Index, published by US-based Foreign Policy magazine.

The current economic recession has sparked conflict and instability across the world, and has pulled many struggling countries further toward the brink of collapse.

In Burma, however, the majority of responsibility for near economic breakdown and endemic human rights abuses lies with the military government, says Foreign Policy?s Failed States Index, which ranked Burma 164 out of 177 countries.

Like Zimbabwe, the report says, Burma is failing because its government is ?strong enough to choke the life out of [its society]?.

The Southeast Asian pariah state ranked below North Korea, Ethiopia and East Timor overall, and only above Somalia and Sudan in terms of even development.

Burma is one of the world?s most isolated states, and is under tough United States and European Union sanctions, which have contributed in part towards the country?s economic decline, although state corruption is widely perceived as the key catalyst for this.

Burmese political analyst Aung Thu Nyein said that the results were not surprising.

?It reflects the reality of the current situation in Burma, where the economy is in a bad state and there major political problems,? he said.

?The government is not providing public services. The main problem for me is the military rule - it?s not surprising that there is a failed state when the army is in power.?

Corruption is also a major problem, he said, and it ?affects every sector of society?.

The index used 12 political, economic and social indicators, including external intervention and presence of public services, to measure whether a country qualifies as a ?failed state?.

Burma was ranked as one of 14 countries deemed to be in a ?critical? state, with Somalia heading the list, followed by Zimbabwe and Sudan.

Reporting by Francis Wade

(DVB)?Burma?s jungle capital of Naypyidaw has been chosen to host this year?s ASEAN meeting on transnational crime, with Chinese, EU and UN delegates lined up to attend, according to Burma?s Weekly Eleven journal.

Senior officials of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had originally earmarked late June for ninth annual meeting, although Weekly Eleven now say it will take place from 1 to 3 July.

Two of the topics likely to be discussed will be human trafficking and Asia?s illicit drug?s trade, both of which are a sensitive issues in Burma.

A report released by the US state department earlier this month said that human trafficking within Burma?s remains ?significant?, despite Burma in April signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Thailand aimed at stemming the flow of trafficking between the two countries.

This is in addition to Burma being party to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.

The US report also labelled Burma as ?a destination country for child sex tourism? and stated that Burma has not ?adequately addressed? trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and labour exploitation within the country.

Similarly, Burma is listed by the CIA as being the world?s second largest producer of opium, behind Afghanistan.

Government-allied armed groups, particular the United Wa State Army, are seen to be key players in the industry.

In May last year Burma?s representative Deputy Chief of Myanmar Police Force, General Zaw Win, attended the ASEAN Chiefs of Police joint communiqué held in Brunei Darussalam, where countries discussed measures to tackle issues such as human and drug trafficking.

Many Burmese women and children are trafficked to neighbouring countries such as Thailand, China and Malaysia, often for forced marriage arrangements.

Within Burma, trafficking of girls for the purpose of prostitution ?persisted as a major problem?, said the US report.

Reporting by Rosalie Smith

(DVB)?The Burmese government?s agricultural bank is skimming money from agricultural loans for farmers and using it in their own loan sharking ventures, say the opposition National League for Democracy party.

The government?s central bank offers farmers monthly loans of 10,000 kyat ($US10) per acre of farmland through local town-level agricultural banks.

A member of the Farmer?s Committee of the National League for Democracy (NLD) said that an agricultural bank in Rangoon division?s Htantabin town is pocketing a portion of each loan.

?The bank is cutting 250 kyat out of every 10,000 kyat loan we get for our farms,? said Maung Maung Kyi.

Htantabin townhsip has about 1200 acres of farmland, while nearby Phyuu township has about 1600 acres.

?In total, they gain about 30 million Kyat profit from all the farmlands in the township,? he said, adding that other townships were being subject to the scheme.

According to Maung Maung Kyi, the bank had also been limiting farmers from receiving loans for more than 10 acres of farmland per person.

A source close to the agricultural bank in Bago division?s Nyaung Lay Pin said that bank officials are keeping the rest of the money for their own use.

Normally, agricultural loans are provided by the government?s central bank in accordance with the amount of farmland owned by the farmer.

According to the source, local agricultural banks are setting arbitrary limitations on loans to farmers, and pocketing money from loans to those with more than 10 acres.

?For example; if there are ten farmers in a village and they own 15 acres each, then the bank officials can skim 500,000 from the extra acres exceeding the 10 acre limit,? said the source.

Loans provided by the government come with very small interest and so officials ?can play loan sharking [with more interest] with the money they skim?, said the source, before they have to return it to the government at the end of harvesting season.

He also said that officials from Bago?s agricultural bank, working together with local village authorities, are forcing farmers to buy fertilizer from them with a elevated price if they want to receive the loan.

The agricultural banks in Rangoon and Bago divisions were unavailable for comments.

Reporting by Ahunt Phone Myat

As the United States continues to track a North Korean frigate off the coast of China, analysts are calling for closer inspection of the vessel in order to confirm suspected military to... 
New Delhi (Mizzima) - As the United States continues to track a North Korean frigate off the coast of China, analysts are calling for closer inspection of the vessel in order to confirm suspected military to military ties between the two estranged Asian nations.

A Burmese military analyst said today the United States should request permission to search on board the North Korean ship, the Kang Nam, tracked by the US Navy since shortly after leaving port in its home country on Wednesday.

Htay Aung, a researcher at the Thailand-based Network for Democracy and Development (NDD), remarked, ?If the vessel is confirmed to be the Kang Nam, then it should be searched as it is highly likely to carry weapons meant for Burma.?

Htay Aung, who has closely followed earlier incidences of the Kang Nam harboring at Rangoon?s Thilawa Port, said North Korea and Burma maintain a secret arms trade at least partly facilitated by the travels of the Kang Nam.

The U.S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. McCain is tracking the North Korean freighter, suspected of carrying missiles and related material, and has reportedly requested permission from headquarters to conduct a search of the ship.

North Korea, which recently conducted a missile test as well as a May 25th nuclear test, is under revamped United Nations sanctions which includes a complete ban on the import and export of weapons and allows ships suspected of carrying arms to be stopped and requested for permission to be searched.

On Sunday, a South Korean News Agency, YTN, citing unidentified intelligence sources, reported that the Kang Nam vessel is heading towards Burma, which is also subject to a U.S. and European Union?s arms embargo.

Htay Aung said the Kang Nam, one of five similar ships North Korea uses in its weapons trade, has been previously spotted at Burmese ports.

In May 2007, Burma?s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement which they circulated among diplomats and embassies in Burma saying a North Korean vessel, the Kang Nam I, had been allowed to harbor at Rangoon?s Thilawa Port on humanitarian grounds.

The statement said the vessel was allowed to harbor on humanitarian grounds as the vessel developed engine trouble while in Burmese coastal waters.

Inspection by Burmese authorities later reportedly found nothing suspicious, the statement added.

Similarly, Burmese authorities permitted another North Korean cargo ship, the MV Bong Hoafan, to anchor at a port in November 2006 under similar circumstances. Burmese authorities also announced then that they had conducted an inspection and "found no suspicious material or military equipment" o­n board.

?If the Kang Nam reaches the Burmese shore, the junta will make a similar statement as earlier made. But we know that North Korea and Burma have secret relations,? Htay Aung said.

Citing sources within the military establishment and civilians close to the military, Htay Aung said he has been aware that the Burmese junta is secretly working for the development of a nuclear arsenal.

Though it might be still a long way off for the Burmese regime to reach the stage of weaponry in their nuclear development, Htay Aung said with countries like North Korea assisting the regime, it might not be impossible.

?North Korea is already mostly isolated and they are looking at Burma as a regime of their own kind. So, it might not be too difficult for the regime to get the necessary expertise from North Korea," he said, adding that the continued thawing of Naypyitaw-Pyongyang relations is quite alarming.

In April 2007, North Korea and Burma restored diplomatic ties after a break of 24 years following an assassination attempt in Rangoon by North Korean Agents targeting visiting South Korean President Chun Doo-Hwan.

But analysts said both countries have been working to restore relations for some time now, with former Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung, purged along with Military Intelligence Chief and then Prime Minister Khin Nyunt in November 2004, both secretly paying visits to North Korea.

According to an email message from Roland Watson, who closely monitors Burma?s defense developments for the U.S.-based Dictator Watch, the United States has fair knowledge about the Burmese regime?s nuclear ambitions and their activities but has withheld information.

?By identifying the Kang Nam and its cargo of missile components, the United States has demonstrated that it is well informed about these relationships,? he said.

He called on the U.S. government to reveal the information they have on the Burmese regime?s nuclear ambitions and their secret activities in trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

Under Section 10 of the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE (Junta's Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act of 2008, the State Department is required to prepare a report on military and intelligence aid to Burma. Subsection 3 of the Act covers weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

This report, under the terms of the Act, should have been made publicly available by the end of January, but the State Department has to date failed to come up with the report, Watson explained.

Meanwhile, Htay Aung said unless the frigate is thoroughly checked before it arrives off the Burmese coast, its cargo may never be known for certain.

Sanctions enacted against North Korea, though, specify force may not be used to board a vessel on the high seas in order to inspect its cargo. Consequently, if the Kang Nam is able to reach Burmese territorial waters without stopping en route then it may prove impossible for the United States to conduct an inspection without violating international law.

However, if, as some analysts suspect, the Kang Nam is due to call on port in Singapore prior to visiting Burma then the United States can request Singaporean authorities to conduct a search of the boat prior to permitting the vessel's onward travel.