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The renewal of diplomatic ties between Burma and North Korea will be closely observed by the US, a State Department official said this week.

Tom Casey, a State Department spokesperson, told reporters in Washington that the restoration of diplomatic ties would not change the image of these two countries in the eyes of the US.

“I don't think that the establishment of diplomatic relations with either of these two countries has any profound impact o­n how we view them,” he said.

In 2005, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice listed Burma and North Korea as among the six countries that were "outposts of tyranny."

Responding to media reports that closer relations might result in the transfer of nuclear technology to Burma, a State Department official told The Irrawaddy that concerns about North Korea and nuclear proliferation are well known.
 
“As far as transfer of nuclear technologies is concerned, we have been very clear to the North Koreans that it is a matter of serious concern,” the official said.

Referring to the o­ngoing talks with North Korea, the official also said the US goal is to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the threat of proliferation from North Korea.

“The North Koreans have promised in this process that they would abandon their existing nuclear weapons program," he said. "We are in the process of trying to implement this agreement.”

Burma and North Korea severed diplomatic ties more than two decades ago, following an unsuccessful assassination attempt o­n the South Korean president in Rangoon, which took the lives of a number of ministers and other officials.  North Korean agents were charged and convicted of plotting the murders.