If Burma’s Foreign Minister Nyan Win thought he was going to enjoy a bit of a holiday on Thailand’s resort island of Phuket this week, he must have been badly disappointed. Instead, the meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) he attended turned out to be a nightmare for him.

The junta representative at the Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and Asean Regional Forum (ARF) found himself floundering, fending off diplomatic pressures and fielding press conference questions about human rights abuses in his country and, more seriously, the nature of relations with North Korea.

These high-profile Asean meetings come as Aung San Suu Kyi is about to face final arguments in her trial for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest. The trial has drawn condemnation from the regional and international community.

At an informal working dinner, Nyan Win told other Asean foreign ministers that his government had not ruled out acquiescing to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s demand for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Asean added its voice to Ban’s demands, and also called for free, fair and inclusive elections in 2010. Notably, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said: "We have been saying to them (the Burmese junta) directly that the process must be inclusive for all groups in society ... including Aung San Suu Kyi."

Nyan Win told his counterparts that he would “report back" to Naypyidaw.

Besides Suu Kyi’s trial, another concern relating to Burma is its increasing military ties with North Korea. According to Asean Director-General Vitavas Srivihok, the issue of closer relations between Burma and North Korea was discussed at a meeting of the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) commission which was set up in July 2007 and tasked with ensuring that member countries follow the best safety practices in running nuclear power plants.

Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have all announced plans to build nuclear power plants by at least 2020. But Burma is different. Its nuclear ambitions are unclear and there’s uncertainty whether its nuclear technology is for military or civilian purposes.

Security analysts suspect that North Korea has been helping the Burmese junta since the 1990s to develop its tunnel and underground warfare capabilities, as well as providing mid-range missile and nuclear technology.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who attended Asia's biggest security forum, said Washington was taking "very seriously" reports of conventional military cooperation between the two pariah states, adding that such developments would be "destabilizing for the region."

Clinton told Thailand’s Nation TV: "We worry about the transfer of nuclear technology" from North Korea to Burma's repressive junta.

Meanwhile, Nyan Win and his team avoided the press as much as possible. When The Irrawaddy's reporters asked Thet Tun, a senior diplomat in the Burmese government delegation in Phuket, about North Korean nuclear ambitions, he replied curtly but politely: "I could not answer these questions."

In fact, the difficulty Nyan Win has experienced under pressure in Phuket suggests he will get very little co-operation from his boss Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

For instance, as Burma’s military authorities denied permission for Suu Kyi's lawyers to meet her to finalize the draft of their closing statements two days before her trial resumes for final arguments, the junta stonewalled its Phuket delegation led by Nyan Win.

Nyan Win is likely to face further uncomfortable Asean sessions between now and the 2010 election, when he will have to resign his post. It’s possible that he will refuse to attend further meetings—following the lead of North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun, who sent his ambassador to the Phuket meeting rather than subject himself to the kind of pressure encountered by Nyan Win.