TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has been selling multiple rocket launchers to military-ruled Myanmar since the two countries restored ties last year in violation of U.N. sanctions, Japan’s NHK public broadcaster reported.
Quoting unspecified diplomatic sources, NHK said in a report late on Wednesday that the launchers were the same type as those deployed near the demilitarized zone separating the Korean peninsula.
The report could not be independently confirmed.
A Security Council resolution passed after North Korea’s 2006 nuclear test blocks trade with the secretive communist country in dangerous weapons, heavy conventional weapons and luxury goods.
Many Western countries, including members of the European Union, the United States and Australia, maintain economic and military sanctions on military-ruled Myanmar, which was widely condemned in 2007 for a crackdown on monk-led protests.
Diplomatic relations between North Korea and Myanmar were cut off following the 1983 “Rangoon” bombing in which Pyongyang agents killed 17 South Korean officials, but were restored in April, 2007.
North Korea is locked in a dispute with the international community over its nuclear ambitions. It has agreed to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for economic and diplomatic benefits, but has yet to produce a full declaration of those programs.
Reporting by Teruaki Ueno
