Sources inside Burma report that two former government officials have been sentenced to death and another to fifteen years in prison for their role in leaking news of a trip to North Korea by a leading member of the Burmese ruling junta to the international media last year.
The Irrawaddy, an online publication covering Burma and surrounding countries, reported on Thursday that Win Naing Kyaw, formerly a personal staff officer assigned to the late Leutenant-General Tin Oo, a high-ranking official on the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and Thura Kyaw, formerly of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have both been sentenced to death under State Emergency Act 3 for releasing state secrets to the media, while Pyan Sein of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received 15 years for violating the Electronics Act, which prohibits damaging information leaks via the internet.
The three were sentenced on Thursday in a special court hearing held in Rangoon’s Insein Prison.
The three men were apparently arrested after news of General Thura Shwe Mann’s trip to North Korea in November, 2008 was leaked to the international media in the middle of 2009. As The Daily NK reported at the time of the leak, the Burmese delegation spent a week in the North, and “was shown various North Korean military facilities, including the National Air Defense Control Center, a North Korean naval unit in Nampo and a SCUD missile factory,” and “learned how North Korea hides sensitive military equipment and facilities underground to avoid detection.”
The North Korean delegation was led by People’s Army Chief of Staff Kim Gyeuk Shik.
According to The Irrawaddy’s sources, many more official were arrested in connection with the leaks, but their status at this time is unknown. They apparently include Colonel Kyaw Kyaw Win, a former director general of the SPDC.
The case also apparently triggered a large reshuffle inside the Burmese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with some figures suffering what appear to be serious demotions. The Irrawaddy notes the example of Yin Yin Oo, sister of former deputy minister Kyaw Thu, who went from director of the Ministry’s political department to a consular post in Saudi Arabia.
At the time of the leak in July, 2009, some experts were skeptical of its authenticity, noting that it may have been a fabrication by the Burmese ruling junta to try and discredit the Burmese exile media. However, these latest reports appear to confirm its veracity, and raise once again potential concerns over the close relationship between North Korea and Burma.
