26 April 2007

Birds of a (brutal and paranoid ) feather...

Myanmar (Burma) and North Korea, two of the world's most isolated, paranoid and repressive states have agreed to restore diplomatic relations after a break of over 20 years.

Myanmar broke off relations with North Korea in 1983, accusing the Koreans of orchestrating a bomb attack against the South Korean president during a visit to Rangoon. Visiting North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong-Il, and his Burmese counterpart signed the agreement restoring relations on Thursday.

It would appear that rapprochement is born out of self-interest: North Korea needs Myanmar’s natural resources while Myanmar wants access to military equipment. If a pariah state is on the receiving end of sanctions who better to trade with than another pariah state?

I daresay that this will be to the detriment of the citizens of both countries. North Korea and Myanmar are both crying out for regime change.

2 comments:

beakerkin said...

I ran into some oddities with Burmese law at work. What is not known is the Karen people have been fighting for around fifty years.

jams o donnell said...

Now that is true.