Mizzima News

(Editorial)- Despite the UN Security Council’s threat of imposing sanctions, the Communist dictatorship of North Korea is defiant and is going ahead with its plan of becoming a nuclear weapons state.

Since the 1990s the economy of North Korea with a population of 23 million has been deteriorating and millions of its people are on the brink of famine. But the ostentatious and recalcitrant leader Kim Jung-il does not care, for he cares only about his plutonium weapons.

At the same time, south of the Korea peninsular is developing and is heading for the top slot in Asia. The people of South Korea can enjoy one of the highest living standards in the world. But in the North, the leader, a fan of Hollywood movies, is talking of principles of self-reliance repeatedly and using public money only for building its military strength. The GDP of North Korea is less than 3 per cent of South Korea.

After the nuclear bomb test on May 25, the UNSC unanimously voted for a resolution to impose sanctions on North Korea. But the North defied the sanction by testing a ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

While the people of the whole world are concerned over North Korea, which has an army of one million, becoming a nuclear weapons state, the leaders of the Burmese junta may be one of those who would like to emulate North Korea.

Burma severed diplomatic ties with North Korea after agents of North Korea assassinated South Korea’s cabinet members and officials including the Prime Minister and three ministers in the 1983 bomb blast at Martyrs’ mausoleum in Rangoon. The current regime approached North Korea to help build their military might and is getting technical assistance in recent years. Now they have restored friendly relationship based on mutual sympathy and common ground of facing the same hardships.

In an emergency resolution adopted by the UNSC, including China, which has traditional influence over both North Korea and Burma,  North Korean vessels can be stopped and searched on high seas along with imposition of an arms embargo and financial sanctions. Even then, it is unable to rein in North’s nuclear weapons programme.

Though it is believed that Burma is still far from possessing nuclear weapons, it is very clear that it is expanding its military might. But only few will doubt the dream of Burma, ruled by Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the father of the bride, who wore diamonds like cascades in her wedding reception, to become a second North Korea.