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Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Outsourcing

This is a mystery?

Indications are that the North Korean ship that delivered a mysterious cargo four months ago, was carrying air defense radars (which are now being placed on hills up north) and ballistic missile manufacturing equipment. Dozens of North Korean technicians have entered the country in the last few months, and have been seen working at a military facility outside Mandalay. It's unclear what this is for. Burma has no external enemies, and ballistic missiles are of no use against internal opposition. Burma is believed to signed a secret military deal with North Korea two years ago. The details of that arrangement are unknown, but something is up.

A mystery? Really?

The United States has North Korea under close scrutiny to block nuclear and ballistic missile exports. Burma isn't under the same restrictions.

Why wouldn't North Korea try to get around that scrutiny by having another country build and sell the missiles while splitting the profits with Pyongyang?

And why wouldn't the low-profile pariah state of Myanmyar agree to such a deal?

UPDATE: And don't forget rumors of Myanmyar's desire for nukes. Another subcontract from North Korea?

This represents my biggest worry about using military force against Iran--Iran could have sent important pieces of their nuclear program abroad to re-seed their home project and restart it with minimal delays. Recall the Israeli strike on the Syrian reactor which killed North Korean technicians. Recall also that our 1998 strike on the al Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan was carried out because we worried it had an Iraqi and al Qaeda connection.