SPDC send army officers to North Korea

DVB ( 26 November 2003 )

The military junta of Burma, the SPDC recently sent 80 Burmese military officers to North Korea to study advanced military technology.

A military source told DVB that the team secretly flew from Mandalay Tada-U Airport to the North Korean capital Pyongyang on 21 November and they are likely to study nuclear and atomic technology.

Among them, 36 officers are said to be from artillery and anti-air assault battalions and the remaining 44 are from tank and armour divisions.

The departure of the officers coincides with the news that the SPDC are buying long range missiles from North Korea.

According to a recent article in the Far Eastern Economic Review, Burma has begun negotiating the purchase of a number of surface-to-surface missiles from North Korea. The article was written by Shawn W Crispin and Bertil Lintner, a well-known Burma expert.

About 20 North Korea technicians are working at a naval base near Rangoon, possibly to install missiles on Burmese warships. North Korea is helping to construct a nuclear reactor at Myothit, near Natmauk in Upper Burma, the Review reports.

In 2002, Russia agreed to sell Burma a nuclear reactor for ‘medical research’. Moscow was to provide assistance for its construction and operation but the project was cut when the junta could no longer afford it.

The SPDC recruited hundreds of students to study nuclear engineering and science in Russia, Pakistan and China.