Report: Myanmar seeking nuclear weapons

No electricity most hours and daily. Not enough water. High inflation. High unemployment. Exporting million of refugees to seek work in neighboring countries. Yet, Than Shwe is seeking nuclear weapons and squandering millions.

Like vain king Hsinbyushin. He conscripted people from each village to fight in neighboring Thailand, a fellow Buddhist country, just for a white elephant. Famine resulted and population decreased in Burma. Laid waste to Ayuthia in Thailand. Destroyed Pagodas. Created unnecessary bad blood and distrust for later generations.

Shortsighted and stupid. Didn’t love or care for people, self centered.

================

Report: Myanmar seeking nuclear weapons – Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100604/ap_on_re_as/as_myanmar_nuclear;_ylt=AppDRJFpzFzERCS6l7tmppPuOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTM3Zmt1azBnBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNjA0L2FzX215YW5tYXJfbnVjbGVhcgRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzYEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNyZXBvcnRteWFubWE-

BANGKOK – Documents smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and North Korea is probably assisting the program, an expatriate media group said Friday.

The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma said the defector had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities.

But the group concluded in a report that Myanmar is still far from producing a nuclear weapon.

On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb announced he was postponing atrip to Myanmar because of new allegations that it was collaborating with North Korea to develop a nuclear program.

Webb, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs, referred to documents provided by a Myanmar army defector.

Myanmar’s military government has denied similar allegations in the past, but suspicions have mounted recently that the impoverishedSoutheast Asian nation has embarked on a nuclear program.

Myanmar’s junta, which has been condemned worldwide for its human rights abuses, has no hostile neighbors. The military’s prime concern is suppressing dissidents at home and battling several small-scaled insurgencies.

Last month, U.N. experts monitoring sanctions imposed against North Korea over its nuclear and missile tests said their research indicated it was involved in banned nuclear and ballistic missile activities in Iran, Syria and Myanmar, which is also called Burma.

The DVB report said Russia has also trained Myanmar technicians in nuclear and missile technology.

The group, which operates Oslo-based television and radio stations, said the defector, Sai Thein Win, was an army major who was trained in Myanmar as a defense engineer and later in Russia as a missile expert. It said he had access to secret Myanmar nuclear facilities including a nuclear battalion north of Mandalay “charged with building up a nuclear weapons capability.”

It said the documents it obtained were examined by Robert Kelley, an American nuclear scientist and former director in the International Atomic Energy Agency who concluded that Myanmar “is probably mining uranium and exploring nuclear technology that is only useful for weapons.”

The group said its report was based on a five-year study that indicated that North Korea was involved in assisting the program.

Documents obtained earlier showed that North Korea was helping Myanmar dig a series of underground facilities and develop missiles with a range of up to 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles).

The group said the documents obtained from the defector show a number of components used in nuclear weapons and missile technology, including a missile fuel pump impeller, chemical engineering equipment that can be used to make compounds used in uranium enrichment, and nozzles used to separate uranium isotopes into bomb materials.

“The total picture is very compelling. Burma is trying to build pieces of a nuclear program, specifically a nuclear reactor to make plutonium and a uranium enrichment program,” the report said.

==========================

Myanmar nuclear arms drive under way – Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100604/wl_asia_afp/myanmarnuclearweaponsnkorea_20100604080222;_ylt=AjyiYJUKnQdHT9uh21POlQP9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTE2b2VraWRzBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bi1yLWItbGVmdARzbGsDZXYtbXlhbm1hcm51

BANGKOK (AFP) – Military-ruled Myanmar has begun a nuclear weapons programme with the help of North Korea, a new investigation revealed Friday, citing an army major defector and years of “top secretmaterial“.

A documentary shows thousands of photos and defector testimony revealing its nuclear ambitions and a secret network of underground tunnels, allegedly built with help from North Korean experts, television network Al Jazeera said.

Revelations in the film, made by Norway-based news groupDemocratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and broadcast by Al Jazeera on Friday, prompted a US senator to abruptly cancel a trip to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Jim Webb was due to fly to the country Thursday but said it would be “unwise and potentially counter-productive” until there is further clarification on accusations of cooperation with nuclear-armed North Korea.

The findings “contain new allegations regarding the possibility that theBurmese government has been working in conjunction with North Korea in order to develop a nuclear programme,” Webb said.

DVB, a news service run by Myanmar expatriates, says “evidence of Myanmar’s nuclear programme has come from top-secret material smuggled out of the country over several years,” Al Jazeera reported on its website.

The years-long investigation included hundreds of files and other evidence from a Myanmar defector, army major Sai Thein Win, who said he was deputy commander of a military factory heading up Myanmar’s nuclear battalion.

“They really want to build a bomb. That is their main objective,” he is quoted as saying in the film.

Files reportedly smuggled out of Myanmar by Sai Thein Win have been seen by experts including Robert Kelley, former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in the film.

“It appears it is a nuclear weapons programme because there is no conceivable use for this for nuclear power or anything like that,” he said, according to Al Jazeera……