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US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies talks to the media in Beijing yesterday |
US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies told reporters in Beijing that Washington continued to be worried about that relationship and it was an issue raised with their counterparts in the former Burma.
“I think that Burma’s on the right path, that they have made a strategic decision to fundamentally alter their relationship with the DPRK and to ultimately end these relationships with North Korea,” Davies said, using the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “But it’s a work in process. It was a long relationship that the two countries had and so it does take some time to work through it.”
Myanmar began sweeping reforms last year as it emerges from decades of isolation and military rule, freeing political prisoners, holding elections and normalising relations with the US which has moved to lift sanctions.
The Southeast Asian country’s defence minister said in June that Myanmar had abandoned research on a nuclear programme that never progressed very far and had stepped back from close military and political ties with North Korea.
News reports two years ago indicated Myanmar had obtained technology for enriching uranium from North Korea along with parts for a nuclear weapons programme.
A UN panel that monitors compliance with sanctions on North Korea has also investigated reports of possible weapons-related deals between Pyongyang and Syria and Myanmar. Reuters
President says no longer afraid of media
Myanmar President Thein Sein said yesterday he had overcome his fear of the media after a recent grilling on the BBC’s Hardtalk show that he admitted was tougher than expected.
“His questions were really difficult. I hadn’t heard about Hardtalk,” the former general told reporters in the capital Naypyidaw when asked about his interview by the BBC’s Stephen Sackur during a landmark US visit last month.
He admitted that in the past government figures had been afraid of the press, adding: “But now I encourage them not to be afraid of the media as I’m not afraid. “As I’ve even been on Hardtalk, I’m not afraid of the others,” he told reporters in his first domestic press conference since taking office 18 months ago. Thein Sein sidestepped questions from Sackur about whether he would apologise to former political prisoners including Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and over whether he would express regret for the regime’s past repression. The reformist leader has won international plaudits—and the suspension or lifting of most Western sanctions—for the fast pace of change in Myanmar since he took the helm of a quasi-civilian government last year. The regime has also loosened its grip on domestic media and allowed journalists into the country to report on the changes, although many government ministers remain reluctant to speak to the foreign press.