Fourteen officials from seven Korean corporations, including a former president of Deawoo International, will be tried on Thursday in Seoul on charges of conspiring to illegally export weapons to the Burmese military regime. 

They are charged with violating strategic goods regulations and fabricating export documents. The charges, filed in December 2006, also include involvement in the construction of an arms factory in Burma and other related offences.

Arrest warrants were issued for former Daewoo Heavy Industries president Yang Jae-Shin, who presently lives in the US, and a man identified as Koh, who was charged as a principal adviser on the illegal exports. All 14 are currently on bail.

This is the first time a Korean company has been named on charges of exporting strategic goods and technology that could be used to build arms factories overseas.

According to the Korean prosecutor, Daewoo International Corp and Doosan Infracore allegedly struck a deal in 2002 with the Burmese government to manufacture at least six types of artillery shells. Other Korean companies are alleged to have agreed to provide technology and equipment for components of the shells. The contract allegedly covered a weapons plant and related equipment worth US $133 million.

Daewoo International is the largest stakeholder in the Shwe Gas project in Arankan State in western Burma.