The Obama administration’s top envoy for Asia suggested on Monday that Myanmar is seeking weapons from North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions and said the United States could “take independent action” to prevent any illegal transfers.
During a visit to the Southeast Asian state formerly known as Burma, Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, also said the administration is “profoundly disappointed” by the ruling military junta’s rejection of Washington’s broad offer of engagement.
“We have urged Burma’s senior leadership to abide by its own commitment to fully comply with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874. Recent developments call into question that commitment,” Mr. Campbell said in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and former capital, according to a transcript released by the State Department.
Resolution 1874, which was adopted last year to punish Pyongyang for two nuclear tests in defiance of U.N. regulations, banned North Korean arms sales and authorized countries to intercept suspicious vessels and illegal cargo on the high seas.
“I have asked the Burmese leadership to work with the United States and others to put into place a transparent process to assure the international community that Burma is abiding by its international commitments,” Mr. Campbell said. “Without such a process, the United States maintains the right to take independent action within the relevant frameworks established by the international community.”
He did not offer details about recent incidents, but Washington has long been concerned about nuclear and missile cooperation between North Korea’s regime and Myanmar’s junta. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton publicly raised those worries at Southeast Asia’s largest and highest-level summit, ASEAN, last summer.
Also on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said that the future of six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear program depends on an investigation into the sinking of a South Korean naval ship that sank after an explosion near the maritime dividing line with the North in March, killing 46.
“How we proceed is going to depend first on the clarity on the cause of the sinking of the Cheonan,” Mr. Steinberg said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.
In Yangon, Mr. Campbell further criticized the Myanmar junta for not allowing free and fair elections later this year and warned that, unless it opens the vote to opposition parties, the result will not be internationally recognized.
“The regime has detained many of Burma’s brightest and most patriotic citizens — citizens that could contribute greatly to ensuring a more prosperous future for their country,” he said. “Instead, the regime has silenced them, dispersing them to remote locations throughout the country where the generals hope they will be forgotten.”
Mr. Campbell met with government ministers and opposition leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for most of the last two decades.
After a months-long policy review last year, the Obama administration offered Myanmar broad engagement on various issues, hoping to influence the repressive regime to allow more political freedoms and to stop cooperating with countries like North Korea.
“Although we are profoundly disappointed by the response of the Burmese leadership, I remain inspired by those outside the government with whom I met,” Mr. Campbell said.
“I was again moved by the perseverance and the commitment Aung San Suu Kyi has shown to the cause of a more just and benevolent Burma and to the Burmese people themselves,” he added. “She has demonstrated compassion and tolerance for her captors in the face of repeated indignities.”
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