North Korea, Relations with

   Korea, Democratic People's Republic of , Relations with

   Following the Rangoon Incident of October 9, 1983, diplomatic ties between Burma and North Korea were severed by the Ne Win regime and have not been formally restored. However, there are reliable reports that Pyongyang has supplied the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) with small arms ammunition, 130mm field guns, and shipboard surface-tosurface missiles. International suspicions about more ambitious arms deals have been aroused by the frequency with which North Korean freighters visit Burmese ports and the presence of North Korean technicians in the country, including those spotted at the Monkey Point naval installation in Rangoon (Yangon). In late 2003, the Far Eastern Economic Review published a report that the SPDC was thinking of acquiring a nuclear reactor from Pyongyang, and there has been further speculation that it wishes to purchase a North Korean-made submarine for its navy. Given the junta's seemingly insatiable appetite for arms and North Korea's position as a major arms exporter, a substantial community of interests seems to exist between the two pariah states.

   See also South Korea, Relations with.