Wikileaks: N. Korea helping build military site in Burma

According to Aug. 2004 leaked cables, Myanmar also assembling surface-to-air missiles; some 300 workers building concrete-reinforced facility.

By OR SCHWARTZ
311_ North Korean military parade (photo credit: Associated Press)
311_ North Korean military parade
(photo credit: Associated Press)
Myanmar has reportedly been involved in the construction of an underground facility and has been assembling surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) in Burma with help from North Korea, according to recently published diplomatic cables by Wikileaks on Friday.
The leaked cable dating from August 2004 and sent from the US Embassy in Rangoon, alleges that "some 300 North Koreans are working at a secret construction site west of Mimbu, Magway Division, in the foothills of the Arakan Yoma mountains."
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The cable details that North Korean workers, aided by Burmese and possibly Chinese workers, "are forbidden from leaving the construction site" and "other 'outsiders' are prohibited from entering."
The workers were said to have been "constructing a concrete-reinforced underground facility that is '500 feet from the top of the cave to the top of the hill above.'" The cable adds that "the North Koreans are 'blowing concrete' into the excavated underground facility."
Click here for full Jpost coverage of the latest Wikileaks
Click here for full Jpost coverage of the latest Wikileaks
"The North Koreans are said to be assembling 'SAM missiles' of unknown origin,'" the cable continues.
However, the cable concludes that, "We cannot, and readers should not, consider this report alone to be definitive proof or evidence of sizable North Korean military involvement with the Burmese regime. The...description made no reference at all to nuclear weapons or technology, or to surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic or otherwise."


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