Clinton fears N. Korea-Myanmar nuclear links

Clinton, who arrived in the Thai resort island of Phuket for Asia's biggest security forum, said the communist state could be sharing atomic technology with military-ruled Myanmar, posing a major threat to the region.

She was set to sign a treaty signalling renewed U.S. commitment to Southeast Asia and will meet counterparts from China, Russia, Japan and South Korea for talks on restarting their stalled dialogue with Pyongyang.

“We worry about the transfer of nuclear technology” from North Korea to Myanmar's repressive ruling junta, Clinton said in an interview with Thailand's Nation TV.

On Tuesday, she said Washington was taking “very seriously” reports of conventional military cooperation between the two pariah states, adding that it would be “destabilizing for the region.”

Myanmar and North Korea, both isolated and under international sanctions, are set to dominate Clinton's two days of discussions with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and at the broader ASEAN Regional Forum.

U.S. officials said a key thrust of Clinton's debut at the forum would be to crank up pressure on North Korea to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks after its recent missile and nuclear weapons tests.

North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun declined to attend the meeting, instead sending a roving ambassador to Phuket, and Southeast Asian officials say the Pyongyang delegation is concerned about coming under pressure.

ASEAN had asked China to play a key role in bringing North Korea back to the negotiating table, a Thai official said after the bloc's foreign ministers met their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday.

Suspicions about Myanmar and North Korea escalated after a U.S. Navy destroyer last month began tracking a suspect North Korean ship reportedly heading for Myanmar, under new UN sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's weapons program.

Separately, a group of exiled Myanmar activists last month released pictures of what they said was a secret network of tunnels built by North Korean experts inside Myanmar.

Clinton headed into talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shortly after flying from Bangkok to Phuket. Details of their discussions were not immediately available.

In Phuket, Clinton was later set to sign a so-called treaty of amity and cooperation with ASEAN, a move designed to offset China's growing influence over the region.

Clinton said U.S. President Barack Obama's administration wants to send a strong message of engagement after the region was neglected by his predecessor George W. Bush during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

China signed the same treaty with the 10-country ASEAN six years ago.

“We give great importance to this region,” Clinton said on Thai television. “We have to deal with everything from pandemic disease to piracy...the United States has to be involved in this region.”

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