coldwarrior on July 3, 2009 at 11:15 PM

Only this time China’s pulling the strings not Japan.

coldwarrior on July 3, 2009 at 10:55 PM

My daughter in law is Burmese, born and raised in Rangoon.

Oldnuke on July 3, 2009 at 10:02 PM

In the tradition of absolute despots across history….Myanmar’s [it will always be Burma] ruling junta is spending lavishly to build a new capital city, Naypyidaw, despite the abject poverty of the nation still trying to recover form that cyclone last year.

The new Presidential Palace…built in an almost P’yongyang style…

All this in a nation with a per capita income of about $200.

Seems fear is indeed a vital and tool in the junta’s box of tricks to maintain the population’s devotion and loyalties…if one looks back at the arrests and slaughter of Buddhist monks last year, fear is effective.

A nuclear Burma…that will get the world’s attention and if they play it right, as does North Korea, and they can leverage that nuclear capability into all sorts of concessions from the West and neighboring countries as well. Such has proven over the years a pretty successful means to keep despots in power.

And fear.

Kenosha Kid on July 3, 2009 at 8:45 PM

Fear they have in plenty.

and Burma needs weapons systems to maintain its iron grip on power.

Nonsense. Their reign is about as low-tech as it gets. They just need small arms ammo. And fear.

China has a geographic interest: it wants mountains on its borders, and it wants to control the states on the other side. (This is why it took Tibet.) This ring of mountains makes it nearly invulterable to either a mass armor attack or to the establishment of a cross-border culture that could become a separatist cause.

A 37-page document in Burmese obtained by Radio Free Asia detailed a visit by 17 Burmese officials, including General Thura Shwe Mann, the chief of staff of the army and Burma’s third-ranked leader, to Beijing and Pyongyang last November.

So, let me get this straight: If Burma and NoKo are members of the axis of evil (which they surely are), and if they are both protected by China (they are), then why do we not also include China in the Axis of Evil?

Oh, … that’s right: China owns us (financially), so we cannot talk bad about them….

…. Happy “Independence” Day!

*we will bury you yanqui imperialist running dogs of capitalism*

In Thai, ‘nam kang’ means ‘water hard’, or ice.
But I think you meant something else…

Given the size of the Kang Nam…I’d look for North Korea to fly a couple Il-76’s from Sunan airfield to Shenyang, then on to Chongqing or Kunming and then on into Burma…all in friendly air space…if indeed there were cargo aboard the Kang Nam that was of an illicit type, and all could be accomplished in a 24-hour period…perhaps 48, if cargo weight demanded more flights.

A lot more expensive ton per mile costs…staggering perhaps to a regular freight forwarder in normal times…but avoiding UN inspection at sea or in a third-party port may be worth it to the P’yongyang regime.

Never underestimate the abilities of a regime with nothing to lose.

it’s no coincidence that orwell lived there for a long time…

And the Soviet Union was useful against the Nazis.