THE BURMA ROAD...TO NUKES - AT 10:39 A.M. ET:  AP is reporting, via Fox News, a disturbing development on the nuke proliferation front, the possibility that Burma may be seeking to join the radioactive club, with a little help from its North Korean friends:

SEOUL, South Korea — The recent aborted voyage of a North Korean ship, photographs of massive tunnels and a top secret meeting have raised alarm bells that one of the world's poorest nations may be aspiring to join the nuclear club — with help from its friends in Pyongyang. No one expects military-run Burma, renamed Myanmar, to obtain an atomic bomb anytime soon, but experts have the Southeast Asian nation on their radar screen.

"There's suspicion that something is going on, and increasingly that cooperation with North Korea may have a nuclear undercurrent. We are very much looking into it," says David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington, D.C. think tank.

And...

Alert signals sounded recently when a North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam I, headed toward Burma with undisclosed cargo. Shadowed by the U.S. Navy, it reversed course and returned home earlier this month.

It is still not clear what was aboard. U.S. and South Korean officials suspected artillery and other non-nuclear arms, but one South Korean intelligence expert, citing satellite imagery, says the ship's mission appeared to be related to a Burma nuclear program and also carried Scud-type missiles.

The expert, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said North Korea is helping Burma set up uranium- and nuclear-related facilities, echoing similar reports that have long circulated in Burma's exile community and media.

COMMENT:  This is the price we pay for negotiating with the North Koreans, year after year, without any satisfactory result.  And you get the feeling that the Obama crowd will talk a good game, and do nothing in the end that would upset the left wing of the Democratic Party or the editorial board of The New York Times.

To show you how pathetic it is, Hillary Clinton  - from whom better could be expected - was on Fox last night, interviewed by Greta Van Susteren.  Clinton actually asked for help if Fox viewers had any information on North Vietnamese proliferation.  I am not kidding.  This does not send a message of either seriousness or competence.  Surprised at Clinton.

July 21, 2009