Myanmar and North Korea sign visa agreement; 14 dissident activists given 65-year sentences for their part in the August 2007 uprising; New economic sanctions imposed on drug traffickers by US Treasury Department; Bush to appoint Special Envoy to Myanmar
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    • Myanmar and North Korea signed documents to eliminate visas for diplomats and government officials. North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Young Il and his Myanmarese counterpart, Kyaw Thu, signed the agreement during Kim’s four-day visit to Myanmar which began on November 10. The two nations resumed their diplomatic relations in April 2007. Myanmar had cut its ties with the North Korean regime after North Korean agents attempted to assassinate South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan and his delegate in Rangoon in 19831.

    In domestic developments, fourteen leading activists from the 88 Generation Students group were each given 65-year sentences on November 11 for their participation during the monk-led uprising in 2007. The lengthy imprisonments were seen as an indication that the military government was invoking harsher punishments on dissidents. The 88 Generation Students group were involved in the mass protests against the rising fuel prices enforced by the government in August 20072.

    Meanwhile, the United States on November 13 named 26 individuals and 17 companies as “specially designated narcotics traffickers” and imposed new economic sanctions, including the freezing of assets held by them in the US. The individuals and companies are associated with Wei Hsueh Kang and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), both of whom have been designated as traffickers of illegal drugs under the Kingpin Act. Barbara Hammerle of the US Treasury Department Office of Public Affairs (OFAC) charged that the United Wa State Army is the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in Southeast Asia and is a major producer and exporter of synthetic drugs, including methamphetamine.

    The latest round of sanctions imposed on individuals and companies associated with these drug traffickers was expected to have an impact on the drug trade in the region, especially where the Wa army was predominant. The action is part of the ongoing US effort under the Kingpin Act to apply financial measures against significant foreign narcotics traffickers worldwide3.

    Meanwhile, US President George Bush announced on November 10 that he will nominate Michael J. Green, a former White House adviser, as a US special envoy to Myanmar. The EU on its part reiterated that the 2010 election would have no credibility unless all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, were released unconditionally and the junta initiates an inclusive, long-term dialogue process with the opposition as well as ethnic groups4.

    In other developments, Aung San Suu Kyi and Karen physician Cynthia Maung, who runs a grassroots medical clinic at the Thai-Burmese border, will receive the Catalonia International Prize. The two women will share 100,000 euros (US $128,000) and receive a sculpture titled La clau i la lletra (The key and the letter) by Antoni Tàpies. The award is presented annually to persons who have made a remarkable contribution to the development of cultural, scientific or human values anywhere in the world. The Myanmarese democracy campaigner Zoya Phan, who is the international coordinator of Burma Campaign UK, will accept the award on behalf of Suu Kyi5.

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