The renewal of diplomatic ties between Burma and North Korea has created uneasiness and made Burma’s neighbors nervous.

Both Thailand’s leading English language newspapers, The Bangkok Post and The Nation, warned that regional governments should watch the development carefully.

The concern is not unfounded. Burma’s nuclear ambitions are an open secret. Thus, the carefully planned renewal of ties with North Korea, which has claimed to have nuclear weapons and is believed to have sold conventional weapons and ammunition to the regime in Naypyidaw in the past, is likely to create tensions.

The role of China cannot be discounted, in view of a statement by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman welcoming the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

“North Korea and Burma are both friendly neighbors of China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said, adding: “We are happy to see and welcome the improvement of their bilateral ties.”

But Washington, which is going to take a tougher stance, along with Japan, vis-a-vis the regime in Pyongyang, said the establishment of diplomatic relations between Burma and North Korea won’t change the US image of these two countries.

US State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters: “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.”

Inside Burma, the renewal of ties between two “outposts of tyranny” went without fanfare and remained a hush-hush affair.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il’s visit to Burma last week was low-key. An expected visit to Burma’s new capital, Naypyidaw, didn’t come about. There were no meetings with Burma’s high ranking officials, despite widespread speculation that he was meeting Secretary 1 Lt-Gen Thein Sein. Burma’s official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar kept silent on the visit.

Staying at Rangoon’s Hotel Nikko, Kim Yong Il and three North Korean officials who accompanied him clearly did not want to draw the attention of the local press and foreign diplomats, who closely monitored the visit.

The North Korean leader visited the Shwedagon pagoda and the national museum, followed by a dozen local reporters. The North Korean party made a brief sightseeing tour of Rangoon and later visited the Cambodian embassy.

Many Burmese who knew of the bombing incident at the Aung San mausoleum in 1983 wanted a formal public apology from North Korea and were surprised and disappointed that the Burmese regime agreed to renew ties without apparently receiving one.

In 2000, Burma’s then foreign minister, Win Aung, told reporters at an Asean regional meeting in Bangkok that Burma expected a formal apology from North Korea. Burma nevertheless supported North Korea’s becoming a member of the Asean Regional Forum.

The renewal of ties undoubtedly made some diplomatic missions in Burma nervous and will certainly create security concerns in the future, if North Korea decides to open an embassy there. South Korea, Japan, and Western embassies will closely watch  Pyongyang’s next step and its relations with the regime in Naypyidaw.

The question frequently asked by many diplomats in Rangoon now is whether North Korea will open an embassy in Burma’s new capital, Naypyidaw.

If North Korea decides to reopen its embassy in Burma, a Western diplomat in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy that the South Korean, Japanese, Chinese and some Western embassies will be actively monitoring the mission and its activities. Moreover, as Burmese leaders are now trying to persuade embassies in Rangoon to relocate to Naypyidaw, central Burma, some diplomats are convinced that North Korea and Burma will have discussed the question of opening an embassy there.

Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu has said it is up to Pyongyang to decide whether to open an embassy in Naypyidaw.

The current theory in diplomatic circles in Rangoon is that if North Korea opens an embassy in Naypyidaw, South Korea, Japan, China and some Western countries will be forced to follow.

Burma’s military regime claims that it exercises an “active and independent foreign policy” with its neighbors and the international community. The renewal of ties with North Korea definitely touched a raw nerve among its neighbors.