The restoration of diplomatic relations between Myanmar and North Korea is the result of a progressive, strategic process and a source of some anxiety to their Asian neighbours. It sends a negative signal to the international community, which will have to pay careful attention to the military aspects of this rapprochement.
Myanmar-North Korea: an Entente to be Kept Under Scrutiny
On 26 April 2007, two of the principal ‘advanced posts of tyranny’, to use the phrase formulated by President George W. Bush’s administration in 2005, Myanmar and North Korea re-established diplomatic relations.
The decision was announced in Yangon(1) by the Burmese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kyaw Thu, in the presence of Kim Yong Il, his North Korean counterpart, on the second day of the first official visit by a North Korean delegation to Myanmar in 24 years.(2) Following the declaration, the two diplomats were joined for discussions by Guan Mu, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Myanmar.
This diplomatic initiative was only accomplished after a highly symbolic gesture: the laying of a wreath on 25 April 2007 by the North Korean Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs at the Martyr’s Mausoleum next to the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, on the exact site of the events of 9 October 1983.
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