A reply to Des Ball: Burma's nuclear programs: A need for caution

Abstract

Reliable information about Burma is scarce, particularly when developments touch on national security-a term with a wide meaning in the minds of the secretive military government ensconced since 2005 in its isolated new capital of Naypyidaw. Dr Ball's extensive interviews with two Burmese 'defectors' over the past few years thus have the potential to throw much needed light on two critical issues, namely Burma's relationship with North Korea and the Naypyidaw regime's nuclear ambitions. Before the defectors' claims can be accepted, however, let alone cited as evidence of a secret nuclear weapons program, a number of factors need to be taken into account.