Burma, North Korea Sign Visa Agreement

By WAI MOE

Burma and North Korea have signed documents to eliminate visas for diplomats and government officials, a Burmese state-run newspaper reported on Tuesday.

North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Young Il and his Burmese counterpart, Kyaw Thu, signed the agreement during an official four-day visit to Burma.

A state-run-newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported that Kyaw Thu and Kin Young Il held the two countries’ third bilateral consultation meeting at a hotel in Naypyidaw.

“After the meeting, they signed the agreement between the Government of the Union of Myanmar and the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on visa exemption for diplomatic and service/official passport holders,” the paper said.

The newspaper said the ministers also discussed cooperation on trade and technology issues. Minister Kim Young Il visited Burma from November 6-10.

He also met with Secretary 1 Lt-Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, the Burmese foreign minister, Nyan Win, and the Rangoon City Mayor, Brig-Gen Aung Thein Linn.

Nyan Win visited Pyongyang in late October and high-ranking military officials have also visited the communist-ruled country this year.

Burma and North Korea resumed diplomatic relation officially in April 2007. Burma cut its ties with the North Korean regime after North Korean agents attempted to assassinate South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan and his delegate in Rangoon in 1983.

Analysts say that military ties between two countries improved during in 1990s. Burma reportedly sought strategic weapons such as submarines and ballistic missiles from North Korea. Pyongyang reportedly exported nuclear technology and strategic tunnel building technology to the Southeast Asian nation.

North Korea and Burma were described by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 as an “outpost of tyranny,” along with Belarus, Cuba, Iran and Zimbabwe.

Among Burma’s ruling generals, North Korea has become not only a strategic partner but also a model, analysts say.

Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency reported on November 7 that Brig-Gen Aung Thein Linn, the Rangoon City Mayor, said that he was deeply impressed by the North Korean people who are “dynamically advancing” under the Communist policy of “Military First Politics,” which serves as the core political system in the North Korean government.

The policy elevates the Korean People’s Army, granting it the position of “supreme repository of power” in the nation.

Aung Thein Linn said: “It is my belief that the Korean people will surely build a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation under the leadership of Kim Jong Il.” Aung Thein Linn visited North Korea in September.