Myanmar and North Korea sign document

Apr 26, 2007, 7:47 GMT

Yangon - North Korean and Myanmar foreign ministry officials on Thursday signed a document presumed to be an announcement of their resumption of bilateral relations, severed since 1983.

'The signed document will be sent to the United Nations in accordance with the usual procedures,' said Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu after holding a closed-door meeting with his visiting counterpart Kim Yong Il at the Nikko hotel in Yangon.

When asked by reporters when Pyongyang will open reopen its embassy in Myanmar, Kyaw Thu said, 'It's up to them.'

Kim arrived in Yangon Wednesday, allegedly to finalize negotiations on normalizing diplomatic ties between the two Asian countries, deemed pariah states by many western democracies.

Oddly, Kim and his delegation did not visit Naypyitaw, Myanmar's new capital, situated about 350 kilometres north of Yangon.

Although Naypyitaw has been the official seat of government since late 2005, thus far no diplomatic missions have opened in the new city, which is still under construction.

North Korea may now be the first to so.

Myanmar severed its diplomatic ties with Pyongyang in 1983 after North Korean nationals set off bombs in Yangon's Martyrs' Mausoleum, killing 21 members of a visiting South Korean delegation.

In recent years Myanmar has made efforts to normalize relations with North Korea, a diplomatic manoeuvre that many analysts see as a repost to the West's, and specifically the US's, efforts to put political pressure on the two totalitarian states to change their ways.

'It's a case of the Axis of Evil getting together,' said Aung Naing Oo, a political commentator on Myanmar affairs based in Bangkok.

US Presdient George Bush originally coined the 'Axis of Evil' label to describe Iran, Iraq and North Korea, although Myanmar could easily qualify to join the club.

Myanmar watchers also believe that the country may be cultivating ties with North Korea to at least raise fears about the military's plans to explore nuclear technology.

'They may want to say (to the West) that we can become like North Korea if you continue to pressure us with sanctions and boycotts,' said Win Min, a lecturer on Myanmar political affairs at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

Myanmar, which has been denied foreign aid by most Western democracies and multilateral aid organizations such as the World Bank since its brutal crackdown on pro-democrcay demonstrations in 1988, has also made diplomatic overtures to Iran and Venezuela recently.