Burma Working on Nuclear Weapon in Secret Jungle Site

Burma may be building nuclear weapons, according to some of WikiLeaks’ State Department cables. A Burmese officer told US diplomats that he’d seen North Korean technicians helping to build “a concrete-reinforced underground facility,” where surface-to-air missiles were being assembled, the Guardian reports. Another witness said he’d seen suspicious cargo coming into Rangoon by ship, according to a cable dated January 2004.

Another cable notes that work on the site seemed at an early stage, and haphazard. Rumors of a Burmese nuclear weapons program have been swirling since 2002, and the country is openly pursuing a civilian reactor with help from Russia. But a 2009 cable reveals that a Burmese official recently let slip to an Australian ambassador that the Russian deal was just for “software, training,” while the country worked with North Korea on “hardware.” (More Myanmar stories.)