US embassy cable - 04RANGOON1100

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 001100 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/26/2014 
TAGS: PARM, PINR, PREL, KNNP, BM, KN 
SUBJECT: ALLEGED NORTH KOREAN INVOLVEMENT IN MISSILE 
ASSEMBLY AND UNDERGROUND FACILITY CONSTRUCTION IN BURMA 
 
Classified By: CDA, A.I. RON MCMULLEN FOR REASON 1.5 (A/C). 
 
1.  (S) SUMMARY: North Korean workers are reportedly 
assembling "SAM missiles" and constructing an underground 
facility at a Burmese military site in Magway Division, about 
315 miles NNW of Rangoon, according to a local embassy 
employee.  The FSN's source is his cousin, an army captain 
assigned to an engineering unit purportedly working near the 
alleged site.  This unsolicited account should not be taken 
as authoritative, but it tracks with other information 
garnered and reported via DAO and various other channels. 
End Summary. 
 
2. (S) A Foreign Service National employee who has worked for 
Embassy Rangoon for five years related to a group of embassy 
officers on August 26 an account of North Korean activity 
that the FSN heard the prior week from his cousin.  This 
cousin (who the FSN refused to name) is said to be an army 
captain attached to an engineering unit (designation unknown) 
based near the Irrawaddy river town of Mimbu in west-central 
Burma.  The captain, reportedly posted in the Mimbu area for 
a month or two, was recently in Rangoon, where he met with 
his FSN cousin and recounted the following.  The FSN 
described his cousin as "proud and boastful" of his exploits 
as an engineer, adding that the captain had been drinking 
when the FSN wheedled details from him. 
 
3. (S) According to the captain's account, some 300 North 
Koreans are working at a secret construction site west of 
Mimbu, Magway Division, in the foothills of the Arakan Yoma 
mountains.  (Comment: the number of North Koreans supposedly 
working at this site strikes us as improbably high.  End 
comment.)  The captain claims he has personally seen some of 
them, although he also reported they are forbidden from 
leaving the construction site and that he and other 
"outsiders" are prohibited from entering.  The FSN was 
confident that his cousin had the ability to distinguish 
North Koreans from others, such as Chinese, who might be 
working in the area.  The exact coordinates of the 
camouflaged site are not known, but it is reportedly in the 
vicinity of 20,00 N, 94,25 E. 
 
4. (S) The North Koreans are said to be assembling "SAM 
missiles" of unknown origin.  When we asked the FSN if his 
cousin specified "SAM missiles," he said yes.  As the 
captain's reported account continues, the North Koreans, 
aided by Burmese workers, are constructing a 
concrete-reinforced underground facility that is "500 feet 
from the top of the cave to the top of the hill above."  He 
added that the North Koreans are "blowing concrete" into the 
excavated underground facility. 
 
5. (S) The captain's engineering unit is supposedly engaged 
in constructing buildings for 20 Burmese army battalions that 
will be posted near the site.  Of these, two battalions are 
to be infantry; the other 18 will be "artillery," according 
to this account. 
 
6. (S) After hearing this account from the FSN, emboffs asked 
why he had taken the extreme risk of engaging in such a 
conversation with his cousin.  He said that nothing the North 
Koreans were doing in Burma could be good for his country, 
and that he felt a loyalty to report this information to the 
embassy.  Emboffs thanked him for his efforts and asked him 
to be very careful, not doing anything further on this topic 
unless specifically so instructed. 
 
7. (S) COMMENT:  The FSN's second-hand account of North 
Korean involvement with missile assembly and military 
construction in Magway Division generally tracks with other 
information Embassy Rangoon and others have reported in 
various channels.  Again, the number 300 is much higher than 
our best estimates of North Koreans in Burma, and exactly how 
the captain allegedly came to see some of them personally 
remains unclear.  Many details provided by the captain's 
account, as relayed by his FSN cousin, match those provided 
by other, seemingly unrelated, sources. 
 
8. (S) COMMENT CONTINUED:  We cannot, and readers should not, 
consider this report alone to be definitive proof or evidence 
of sizable North Korean military involvement with the Burmese 
regime.  The captain's description made no reference at all 
to nuclear weapons or technology, or to surface-to-surface 
missiles, ballistic or otherwise.  We deem the FSN to have 
honestly and reliably related the account of his boastful 
cousin, but we have no way of knowing whether the cousin was 
honest, or was a plant or fabricator.  This account is 
perhaps best considered alongside other information of 
various origins indicating the Burmese and North Koreans are 
up to something ) something of a covert military or 
military-industrial nature.  Exactly what, and on what scale, 
remains to be determined.  Post will continue to monitor 
these developments and report as warranted. 
McMullen