Global Security Newswire

The military junta that rules Myanmar has started to covertly obtain the necessary equipment for building a nuclear arms program, according to a report released yesterday that relied on photographs and documents smuggled out of the country by a former army officer (see GSN, June 3).

The documents demonstrate that the junta has begun down the path of acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, a study of the situation by an independent nuclear expert and produced by the opposition group Democratic Voice of Burma found. The analysis concludes, though, that large amounts of missing Burmese nuclear knowledge show the nation has years to go before it could build a warhead, the Washington Post reported.

The study found with "high confidence" that Myanmar was pursuing nuclear components and that "this technology is only for nuclear weapons and not for civilian use or nuclear power."

"The intent is clear, and that is a very disturbing matter for international agreements," according to the report, which was co-written by Robert Kelley, a former ranking nuclear inspector with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The new study relies on evidence provided by defector and ex- Burmese military officer Sai Thein Win, who said he had traveled to sites involved with the nascent nuclear program and attended briefings where the nuclear technology was displayed.

Smuggled evidence includes detailed sketches of a bomb-reduction vessel, which is primarily relied on to produce the uranium metal used for manufacturing uranium metal that could be used in nuclear-bomb parts. Other information included a letter from a Burmese government official authorizing the building of the vessel and photographs of the completed device. There are also photographs of a vacuum glove box that is used to produce uranium metal.

"Photographs could be faked but there are so many and they are so consistent with other information and within themselves that they lead to a high degree of confidence that Burma is pursuing nuclear technology," the analysis said.

The ex-Burmese army major also detailed efforts made in other parts of the nuclear program such as uranium mining and research done on lasers used for the enrichment of uranium. Some equipment used by Myanmar in its nuclear work seems to have come from Western nations.

A nuclear expert in Washington said the analysis' findings seem to be sound. "It's just too easy to hide a program like this," Joshua Pollack said (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, June 4).

Sai also supplied photographs of equipment used for producing compounds such as the uranium hexafluoride gas needed for enriching the material, the London Guardian reported (Richard Norton-Taylor, London Guardian, June 4).

Kelley emphasized that the nation was far from attaining a nuclear weapons capability, Reuters reported.

"Whether the uranium metal is used in a plutonium production reactor or a nuclear device, Burma is exploring nuclear technology that is useful only for weapons," he said.

Burmese scholar Aung Naing Oo speculated that the junta could seek to copy the tactics used by North Korea, which attempts to use its nuclear weapons program to increase its bargaining power with other nations.

"It serves a purpose. The military knows that nuclear weapons are a shortcut to getting on the international radar and earning respect geopolitically," Aung said (Martin Petty, Reuters, June 4).

In late May, U.N. officials charged with overseeing sanctions levied against Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons program said it appeared that the North was collaborating with Myanmar as well as Syria and Iran on illegal nuclear and missile operations, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 28).

Documents acquired previously indicated that the North was aiding Myanmar in excavation work to build several underground structures and to develop missiles that could travel as far as 1,860 miles.

The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma study also said Burmese technicians had received training in missile and nuclear technology from Russia (Denis Gray, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 4).

"We have been investigating Burma's nuclear aspirations for the past five years, but Sai Thein Win's evidence has been vital in proving that the intent to build a nuclear bomb is there, even if they are a long way off producing one," said Khin Maung Win, deputy director of the dissident group to the London Independent yesterday (Jerome Taylor, London Independent, June 4).

U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.) this week canceled a planned trip to Myanmar over concerns about its nuclear operations.

The U.S. Defense Department, while not responding to the latest nuclear assertions, said today that it was tracking North Korean-Burmese military collaboration, Agence France-Presse reported.

"We are concerned with growing military ties with the D.P.R.K. and are following it closely to ensure that the multiple [U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting the export of North Korean nuclear and missile technology] are enforced," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in an e-mail (Dan De Luce, Agence France-Presse/Google News, June 4).