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Photos seem to back Myanmar nuke claims
Friday, July 23, 2010

HANOI, Vietnam -- Allegations by a Myanmar defector that the military-run country is pursuing a nuclear program are corroborated by newly available commercial satellite images, Jane's Intelligence Review said in an article released Wednesday.

Photos of buildings and security fences near the country's capital, Naypyidaw, confirm reports by Maj. Sai Thein Win of machine-tool factories and other facilities alleged to be part of a nascent program to build nuclear weapons, the magazine reported from London.

"They will not make a bomb with the technology they currently possess or the intellectual capability," Jane's analyst Allison Puccioni said in an interview. "The two factors do make it possible to have a route to one."

On Thursday, the United States called on Myanmar to disclose its relationship with North Korea amid concerns Kim Jong Il's regime is helping the military-run Southeast Asian nation pursue a nuclear arms program.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton held meetings in Hanoi on Thursday with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar. She will join North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun on Friday at Asia's biggest security forum.

"We have told Burmese officials that they have international obligations we expect them to heed," State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said in an e- mail, referring to Myanmar by its former name. "This requires greater transparency in their dealings with North Korea."

Myanmar told its ASEAN counterparts at meetings this week that it is not seeking nuclear weapons. "Myanmar's government, the foreign minister, has told us categorically that they don't have a nuclear weapons program, and have no ambitions" to start one, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo told reporters Tuesday in Hanoi.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win hasn't addressed reporters at the meeting.

Myanmar conducts relations with North Korea "in the same way as it has been trying to maintain friendly relations with every nation," the Foreign Ministry said in a June 11 statement. The country upholds U.N. resolutions regarding North Korea, and shipments between the nations involve "normal commercial activities," it said.

ASEAN works closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency and can send inspectors to Myanmar under the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone treaty, Indonesia Foreign Marty Natalegawa said.


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First published on July 23, 2010 at 12:00 am