North Korea

Burma’s number 3 visits North Korea

In 2008 Senior General Shwe Mann visited North Korea with a group of Burmese military officials.

Shwe mann and North Korea’s Chief of General Staff Kim Gyok Sik

During this trip he visited several factories including a surface-to-surface missile (SCUD Missile) Factory .  A report of the visit that DVB has obtained states that they “observed in detail how missiles were produced in the factory.”

Scud missile from factory in North Korea

They go on to talk about the nature of the factory:

“It produces SCUD missiles.  The component producing lines are kept in the underground tunnel.  There are also above-ground factory where missile engines are assembled.”

As we have already discovered that the military in burma are spending a large amount of money on underground facilities this raises questions about what else may be going on in some of the larger underground facilities.  The report goes on to observe that North Korea are able to produce complete missiles in these factories.  Although there are four different types of missile being made in the factory Shwe Mann and his party visited, there were two that they were particularly interested in.

“SCUD-D and SCUD-F are strategic missiles that can shoot 700 kilometers and 3,000 kilometers.  Therefore, at an appropriate time, we should continue to produce these strategic weapons step by step”

This paragraph implies that the Burmese have already begun trying to produce these missiles and they are planning to continue.  According to many of our inside sources, the North Koreans have already sold some missile production factories to Burma.  These are called DIs, or Defence Industries.  Sai, a former engineer in DI3 confirmed this, telling us North Korea had sold an IGLA factory to Burma.

Shwe Man and The Director of Defence Industries meeting the North Korean second in command of an Anti-Aircraft Unit

He told us this visit was the brain child of the Directorate of Defence Industries, who wants to invest in factories for long range missiles from North Korea.

We know that during this visit, a memorandum of understanding was signed by both countries.  Although we do not know the exact nature of the MOU, this detailed report can give us a worrying indication of what it might involve.

Signing the MOU

Read the full English translation of this report here.