Corea del Norte construye instalaciones nucleares en... Birmania

Instalaciones subterráneas en plena jungla: 

Witnesses in Burma claim to have seen evidence of secret nuclear and missile sites being built in remote jungle, according to secret US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, heightening concerns that the military regime is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

A Burmese officer quoted in a cable from the US embassy in Burma said he had witnessed North Korean technicians helping to construct an underground facility in foothills more than 300 miles (480km) north-west of Rangoon.

"The North Koreans, aided by Burmese workers, are constructing a concrete-reinforced underground facility that is '500ft from the top of the cave to the top of the hill above'," according to the cable. The man is quoted as saying the North Koreans were "blowing concrete" into the excavation.

An expatriate businessman told the embassy in Rangoon he had seen alarge barge carrying reinforced steel bar of a diameter that suggested a project larger than a factory. Other informants included dockworkers, who reported suspicious cargo.

According to the witness accounts, pieced together by US embassy staff, the work is at an early stage and haphazard. But they regard it as a troubling development, with the risk that Burma could join Pakistan, North Korea and possibly Iran in having a nuclear bomb.

Burma has made no secret of wanting a civilian nuclear reactor, in part because of severe electricity shortages, and has signed a deal with Russia to build one. The project has so far failed to start because of lack of funds. 

According to a 2009 cable, a well-placed source within the Burmese government last year made an apparently indiscreet remark to the Australian ambassador that the agreement with Russia was just for "software, training" and the North Korea agreement was for "hardware".

The source said General Thura Shwe Mann, who had overall command of military activity, visited North Korea in 2008. 

Alarmingly, there is a report of a businessman offering uranium to the US embassy in Rangoon. The embassy bought it.

"The individual provided a small bottle half-filled with metallic powder and a photocopied certificate of testing from a Chinese university dated 1992 as verification of the radioactive nature of the powder." He said that "if the US was not interested in purchasing the uranium, he and his associates would try to sell it to other countries, beginning with Thailand".

Vía The Guardian