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Over the past year, Southeast Asia's diplomatic community has tried to sort fact from fiction in a stream of unconfirmed reports from Burma, the region's most isolated and secretive country. Burma's fledgling nuclear program with Russian assistance and its mysterious connections with North Korea raise concern in the region about its purpose.

"Documents smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and North Korea is probably assisting the program, an expatriate media group said Friday. The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma said the defector had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities. But the group concluded in a report that Myanmar is still far from producing a nuclear weapon."

"China is interested in cooperating on nuclear power plant construction with Pakistan, a country that not only armed itself with nuclear weapons without joining the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NTP) but also has suspected ties to the world's "black nuclear market." Should China go ahead with this cooperation, it will further strain the already frayed seams of the NTP. To contain India's growing presence in Asia as an emergent powerhouse, China has been supplying neighboring Pakistan with weapons and other forms of aid while deepening its ties with Sri Lanka and Myanmar (Burma) through port construction and other joint projects. "

"U.S. Senator Jim Webb abruptly canceled a planned visit to military-ruled Myanmar on Thursday because of concern about the country's alleged nuclear cooperation with North Korea. Politics | North Korea Webb, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific, said his visit would be "unwise" having learned of a report containing new allegations that Myanmar was seeking North Korea's help in developing a nuclear program. It was not immediately known what report Webb was referring to and a U.S. embassy spokesman could not confirm the origin of the report, or where it was published."