U.S. calls on Myanmar to abide by arms embargo on N. Korea: State Dept.

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Yonhap) -- The United States Friday called on Myanmar to abide by the U.N. resolutions banning arms transactions with North Korea, suspected of providing nuclear and missile technologies to the South Asian country.

"We continue to encourage Burma to meet its international obligations, including those in the area of nonproliferation," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "We share international concerns for Burma's intentions and its relationship with North Korea. And we expect Burma, just as we expect all countries, to live up to their international obligations. We continue to watch transactions between North Korea and Burma."

Crowley was responding to the report by a Myanmarese Army defector who insisted that the country has been working with North Korea for the development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

U.N. resolutions adopted after North Korea's nuclear and missile tests impose an overall arms and economic embargo on the impoverished, but nuclear-armed communist state.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell visited Myanmar last month in the first bilateral high level contact under the Obama administration to call on the military junta to abide by U.N. resolutions banning arms exports and imports from North Korea, and improve its human rights record.

U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) Thursday canceled his trip to Myanmar, or Burma, citing the Southeast Asian country's alleged military connection with North Korea.

Webb said he still believes in a continuation of dialogue "for the evolution of a more open governmental system and for the future strategic balance in Southeast Asia.

"However, a productive dialogue will be achievable only when these two matters are further clarified," he said.

Webb visited Myanmar last August to win the release of an American citizen, John Yettaw, detained for swimming to the lakeside home of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The senator also met with the Burmese top leader, General Than Shwe, and the opposition leader, who has been under house arrest for nearly 20 years.Rest of your post