Wednesday, August 1, 2018

The Irrawaddy Magazine

The Irrawaddy Magazine

Yangon High Court Summons 3 Suspects in Comedian’s Beating Death

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 07:25 AM PDT

YANGON — The Yangon Region High Court on Tuesday summoned three suspects who had been controversially freed after being detained in the killing of Facebook comedian Aung Yell Htwe.

The three suspects in the fatal beating of Aung Yell Htwe — Than Htut Aung (a.k.a Thar Gyi), Pyae Phyo Aung (a.k.a Aung Lay) and Kyaw Zaw Han (a.k.a Kyaw Zaw) — were released on July 25 after the Yangon Eastern District Court accepted an appeal from the victim's family asking to settle the case.

Daw Nwe Nwe Oo, media and communications officer and deputy director of the High Court, told The Irrawaddy that the court sent summonses dated July 31 to the three suspects through the courts in the townships where they reside.

The Yangon Region attorney general addressed the high court on Monday seeking a review of the court's decision to drop the case.

Daw Nwe Nwe Oo said the court will decide whether to annul the lower court's decision to drop the case after both the Yangon Region attorney general and the defendants present their arguments at the next high court hearing.

The hearing date will be announced three weeks in advance, she added. If the judge annuls the Eastern District Court's decision, the trial will continue and the remaining witnesses will testify.

The release of the murder suspects without any charges being filed attracted heavy condemnation from the public as well as from lawyers, lawmakers and activists.

Amid the public outcry, President U Win Myint ordered an investigation into the reasons for the dropping of the case and told officials to see that justice was served in accordance with the law.

The Union Attorney General's Office on Monday ordered the Yangon Region attorney general to annul the court's decision to drop the case and to continue the trial.

Earlier, Yangon Region Attorney General U Han Htoo had approved the request from the victim's family to drop the case, citing a lack of evidence implicating the accused.

Aung Yell Htwe, who became popular for a series of short comedy videos he posted to his Facebook account starting in 2016, died after being kicked and beaten by a group of men while attending a party last New Year's Eve at The One Entertainment Park in Yangon.

The three suspects surrendered to police in the presence of their parents soon after the incident.

The post Yangon High Court Summons 3 Suspects in Comedian's Beating Death appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

The Cost of Doing Business in Yangon — the Facts and Figures

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 07:15 AM PDT

YANGON — With a population of more than 7 million, Yangon is the biggest city and main business hub in Myanmar. Real estate prices in the city have increased since last year, according to the 2018 "Cost of Doing Business in Myanmar" report published by the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA).

DICA said the New Companies Law, which took effect Aug. 1, favored foreign investment.

With such investment expected to play a crucial role in national development, the report is aimed at making it easier for existing and potential investors to ascertain the cost of doing business in Myanmar, especially in Yangon.

According to the report, North Okkalapa Industrial Zone has the highest lease rates and South Okkalapa has the highest prices among industrial zones in Yangon.

All the companies surveyed reported an increase in total salary payments compared to last year's report.

The average price for office space was 1,000 kyats per square foot, while the average lease rate for industrial land was 500 kyats/sq. ft. The average lease rate for commercial space was around 2,800 kyats/sq. ft.

Check out The Irrawaddy's charts and infographics to see the cost of doing business in Yangon.

Prices in Myanmar kyats (MMK)

Example: Leasing 30,600 sq. ft. of land in an industrial zone at a price of 353 kyats/sq. ft./month would cost 10,800,000 kyats per month.

Minimum and maximum lease rates per square foot of industrial land in Yangon

Maximum sales price per square foot of industrial land in Yangon

Average lease rate per square foot of office space in Yangon

Average sales rate per square foot of office space in Yangon

According to the investment law, foreigners are not allowed to buy property, but the following prices are provided for reference.

Commercial space for lease in Yangon
Click the bubble to see the location and price

Overall median salaries at companies in Myanmar by position

Salaries in Myanmar are paid in MMK or U.S. dollars (USD). However, 97% of locally owned companies, 90% of local-foreign joint ventures, and 86% of foreign-owned companies pay in MMK.

Currencies in which local companies pay employees' salaries

Currencies in which local-foreign JV companies pay employees' salaries

Currencies in which foreign-owned companies pay employees' salaries

The post The Cost of Doing Business in Yangon — the Facts and Figures appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Bangladesh-Myanmar Repatriation Working Group to Visit Rakhine

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 06:33 AM PDT

DHAKA — A joint Bangladesh-Myanmar working group on repatriation will visit Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August to assess whether conditions are suitable for the safe return of Rohingya refugees, a Bangladeshi official said.

The visit will be its first since militant attacks on police posts in Rakhine on Aug. 25 triggered a crackdown by the Myanmar military that has driven some 700,000 mostly Rohingya to Bangladesh.

“We want to see what they [Myanmar] have done to create a conducive environment, what kind of houses they have built, what they have done for their business and land…. We will return with a briefing so that we can say what kind of work has been done, whether or not it is enough, if a conducive environment is being created,” Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque told reporters at an event in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The public discussion, titled “The Rohingya Influx and its Impact on Locality: The role of stakeholders for durable solutions,” was organized by the National Human Rights Commission with funding from the United Nations Development Program.

Bangladesh and Myanmar formed the 30-member joint working group in December to supervise all aspects of the repatriation of refugees from Myanmar back to Rakhine.

The group held its second meeting in Bangladesh in mid-May, co-chaired by Shahidul Haque and Myanmar Foreign Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary U Myint Thy.

At the meeting, Bangladesh insisted that Myanmar create a conducive environment for repatriation by taking certain steps, including ensuring Rohingyas’ rights to property and freedom of movement.

According to the UN’s ReliefWeb, Myanmar reiterated its readiness to receive Rohingya who were verifiably displaced from Rakhine and urged Bangladesh to start sending back the roughly 2,300 volunteer refugees Naypyitaw has already screened and approved.

Myanmar in turn asked Bangladesh to provide information on its readiness to commence the repatriation process, including transit camps on its side of the border and efforts to educate the refugees about the repatriation process.

Myanmar also called on the international community to help bring a stable peace and sustainable development to all of Rakhine State’s residents.

The working group is scheduled to hold its next meeting in Naypyitaw.

Shahidul Haque said the joint visit to Rakhine would probably last two or three days and begin on Aug. 9 or 10. He added that Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahood Ali would join the trip.

“With this process we will be able to repatriate them safely and securely,” the foreign secretary said, adding that repatriation was a very complicated process but that Myanmar and Bangladesh were progressing relatively quickly.

Shahidul Haque declined to give a clear answer when asked why none of the refugees has been repatriated through official channels to date. “We have to be optimistic,” he said.

In addition to the bilateral repatriation agreements Bangladesh and Myanmar have signed with each other, the UN recently signed deals with both to help facilitate the returns.

Imtiaz Ahmed, director of Dhaka University's Center for Genocide Studies, told The Irrawaddy that the working group should be taking a long-term view of the repatriation process and consider how safe the Rohingya refugees will be after they return. He said Myanmar should also amend its laws to guarantee them a path to citizenship.

The post Bangladesh-Myanmar Repatriation Working Group to Visit Rakhine appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Death Toll From Seasonal Flooding Rises to 12, With 150,000 Displaced

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 05:03 AM PDT

YANGON – Monsoon floods have now killed 12 people and displaced almost 150,000 across the country, the National Disaster Management Committee announced today.

According to a statement, the government is in the process of setting up 326 temporary camps for displaced people in Tanintharyi, Bago and Magway regions and Karen and Mon states.

Two weeks of almost incessant heavy rains have raised water levels in many rivers and other bodies of water, causing seasonal floods during the last week of July.

Bago Region has been the most badly affected area, where a total of 95,107 people have been displaced from their homes. In Karen and Mon states, 25,563 and 19,550 people have been displaced, respectively while 6,583 people have been displaced in Tanintharyi Region and 464 people in Magway Region.

According to the statement, 53 temporary camps have opened in Karen, 50 in Mon, 186 in Bago and seven in Tanintharyi.

Heavy monsoon rains have also destroyed large areas of paddy fields and farmland, but the government has not yet announced official data on the damage.

Every year, Myanmar is hit by severe flooding during the monsoon season that also results in landslides and extensive damage to paddy fields, farmland and infrastructure across the country.

Myanmar suffered the worst monsoon flooding in 2015, when 100 people died and at least 330,000 were displaced, according to statistics collected by ReliefWeb, an information site run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The post Death Toll From Seasonal Flooding Rises to 12, With 150,000 Displaced appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Myanmar Ranks at the Bottom of Asean for Access to Electricity

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 03:52 AM PDT

Naypyitaw — Myanmar's people have the lowest access to electricity in Southeast Asia, according to U Myo Myint, an energy expert who helped conduct a survey on the issue for the World Bank.

"About 70 percent of households in Myanmar get electricity from either the national grid or other sources outside the grid for only around 2 hours per day," U Myo Myint said Tuesday during a workshop held in Naypyitaw on the Multi-Tier Framework (MTF) global survey.

The MTF for measuring energy access was developed as part of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative, in response to the shortcomings of the older binary assessments, in which a household was either defined as having access to electricity or not.

The framework measures energy access using a multi-tiered-spectrum, which ranges from Tier 0 (no access) to Tier 5 (the highest level of access).

According to the World Bank survey, the electricity access of about 70 percent of households in Myanmar stands at Tier 1, U Myo Myint said.

"In Tier 0, people use only candles and oil lamps. In Tier 5, they have access to 24-hour electricity," he explained.

The government supplies electricity through a power grid as well as a solar power system being implemented with the assistance of the World Bank, said Rural Development Department Director U Maung Win.

However, users have to pay 10 percent of the cost of installing a solar system, and many people cannot afford that, he said.

According to the MTF survey, of the 70 percent of Myanmar households with access to electricity, about 30 percent get their power from sources outside the national grid.

The survey aims to measure how small and heavy industries have developed after they gain access to electricity, U Myo Myint said.

Around 85 percent of urban households get electricity from the national grid while 60 percent of rural households get power from sources outside the grid, the survey found.

The World Bank conducted the MTF survey in 15 countries including Myanmar last year to measure global progress towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7, which aims to achieve universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services by 2030.

The survey was completed in September last year. The government has been implementing the National Electrification Project to increase electricity access in off-grid areas since 2015. It also aims to provide electricity access to all households in Myanmar by 2030.

The post Myanmar Ranks at the Bottom of Asean for Access to Electricity appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

107-Year-Old Karen Spiritual Leader Granted Thai Citizenship

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 02:53 AM PDT

Ko-ee Meeme, a 107-year-old spiritual leader of the ethnic Karen, registered for a Thai identity card in Kaeng Krachang District on Tuesday after he was granted Thai citizenship.

On hand to witness the registration process were Tuenjai Deetes, a commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, and children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Ko-ee Meeme, affectionately known as Grandfather Ko-ee.

Tuenjai told the media that the old man was born on Thai soil at the border between Phetchaburi and Ratchaburi provinces, which is an ancestral home of members of Myanmar's Karen ethnic group, and for that reason he was entitled to Thai citizenship.

She noted that the case of Grandfather Ko-ee represented a good example of cooperation between several relevant agencies in resolving issues of nationality, especially for many elderly members of ethnic minorities living in Thailand who are still regarded as stateless.

The human rights commissioner said that there are many stateless people who have been living in Thailand for several decades but have not been granted Thai citizenship because they lack necessary official documents, such as birth certificates, which would prove that they were born in the country.

Because of their status as stateless persons, she said, they are not entitled to state welfare, cannot travel freely and are often deprived of job opportunities.

The post 107-Year-Old Karen Spiritual Leader Granted Thai Citizenship appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Bago Farmers Face Huge Debts as Newly Seeded Fields Wiped Out by Floods

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 02:37 AM PDT

YANGON—Local farmers in Bago Region's Shwegyin Township are facing heavy debts after their paddy fields were flooded just days after they seeded and applied fertilizer to them.

"Our fields have been flooded for nearly a week," U Kyaw Hsan Win, a farmer from Nyaung Bin Gyi village, told The Irrawaddy.

"We've lost around 150,000 kyats per acre. Luckily, I used direct seeding. If I had used the transplanting method, it would require weeding and would have cost even more," he added.

Shwegyin's villages have been inundated since July 25. The water subsided a little on July 30, but most of the houses, roads and farmland remain flooded.

"We took out loans from the government. We borrowed around 1 million kyats for 7 acres. Now, we will have to borrow money from others [to replant the crops]," said Ma May Pearl Wah of Wyne Pyin village.

The floodwaters rose so rapidly that the farmers had no time to prepare, leaving them with huge losses.

"We haven't seen severe flooding for a few years, so people grew complacent. They sowed their seeds assuming there wouldn't be flooding. Now, all the fields are inundated," said Ma Thin Pa Pa Soe of Nyaung Bin Gyi village.

According to the Disaster Management Center, over 77,000 residents of Bago Region have been dislocated by flooding on the Sittaung and Bago rivers.

Of the 45,305 acres of farmland in Shwegyin, 25,500 acres have been inundated, according to July 31 records from the township's Agriculture Department.

"We will use all means at our disposal to try to replant those paddy fields," department head Daw Thet Thet Khaing told The Irrawaddy.

Floods have dislocated 27,266 people from 17 wards and village tracts in Shwegyin, and around 70 schools have been temporarily closed, according to the township's General Administration Department.

The post Bago Farmers Face Huge Debts as Newly Seeded Fields Wiped Out by Floods appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

30 Years On From ’88 Uprising, a Need For Reparations

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 02:12 AM PDT

The 30-year anniversary of the 1988 uprising is fast approaching, commemorating when millions of people marched across the country in a powerful call, demanding the end of decades of oppressive military rule.

Following months of unrest, protests erupted throughout Myanmar in August 1988. The response from the military dictators was barbaric. In the weeks that followed, 3,000 were estimated to have been killed and many more injured. Thousands were arrested, incarcerated and tortured in jail, all for simply exercising their democratic rights.

As we approach the 30-year anniversary, it is important to stop and reflect on how far we have come as a nation and on what has changed since a quarrel in a tea shop started one of the biggest political demonstrations in Myanmar's history. While many people contemplate the state of the nation 30 years on, though, what about the state of the protesters?

Many of the ’88 generation have scars as a result of their imprisonment. Many are underemployed, and some are unable to work altogether. They need reparation and recognition.

A reparation law should be implemented to this end. This would include financial reparations to make up for years of unemployment and employment restrictions. Provisions for physical therapy, treatment and livelihood support such as pensions should be included. Such a law should also remove any restrictions or limitations on hiring former political prisoners or denying them full access to all avenues of society. Today, lawyers and doctors who lost their licenses upon arrest have yet to get them back even though they were released years ago.

In 2013, in Georgia, an amnesty bill not only freed 190 political prisoners but also freed them from any legal or criminal responsibility. It ensured not only their freedom, but also their re-integration into society, allowing them to play roles in moving the country forward. Such a holistic approach should be studied and considered for Myanmar. In Northern Ireland, former political prisoners played vital roles in the peace process and in national reconciliation. Former political prisoners should be utilized for the benefit of this country too. This should also include the involvement of those who have fled and are yet to return.

The return of exiles, activists and former political prisoners is an important and necessary step for national reconciliation. In South Africa, Chile and East Timor, at the end of civil war or after a conflict or uprising, exiles returned and proved they can play vital roles in shaping that country's future.

In Myanmar, there is no pathway for exiles to return. I myself am also still waiting for the government to return my citizenship. I am not alone. Many more are waiting for it to be returned while others are waiting to be removed from the government blacklist. The government needs to facilitate this. It needs to invite and welcome exiles and listen to them.

They also need recognition of their sacrifice, of their many years spent behind bars for fighting for change. Today there are 122 former political prisoners in Parliament. They know all too well the struggle that political prisoners have endured. It should not go unnoticed. But there is little action being taken. This recognition of their struggle would be a vital part of national reconciliation.

There is now a democracy monument in Bago Region recognizing the struggle of democratic activists, built by the regional government and civil society, which will be officially opened on Aug. 8. This is appreciated and a start, but more effort toward recognition needs to be made by the central government.

Now, 30 years on from the uprising, we are living in a hybrid regime, where power is shared between the democratic government and the military. We can see some positive signs, but the civil war goes on, torture remains widespread and gross human rights violations still exist. We have come a long way, but we have much further to go and the government has a lot more to do.

Bo Kyi helped found the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and currently serves as a secretary.

The post 30 Years On From ’88 Uprising, a Need For Reparations appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

3 More Sued, Arrested in Mandalay For Opposing Cement Factory

Posted: 01 Aug 2018 01:41 AM PDT

MANDALAY — Three more people were arrested on Tuesday in Mandalay Region over opposition to a coal-powered cement factory currently under construction that locals want cancelled for fear it will damage the environment or leave them uncompensated for confiscated land.

U Thein Paing, Daw Mya Mya and Daw Aye, who is 70 years old, had been notified that they were being sued under a local road and traffic law and presented themselves at a police station in Patheingyi Township, at which point they were arrested and sent to the township court.

The three asked to be released on bail but were refused.

"The court said it is a non-bailable offense. It is not a problem for us. But Daw Aye is seriously ill and deserves bail, so we were saddened by the court’s decision," said U Thein Paing.

U Thein Paing and Daw Mya Mya were both sent to Obo prison in Mandalay Township immediately after the court session. Daw Aye was sent to Patheingyi General Hospital to receive medical care under police supervision. Her lawyer said a second bail request had already been submitted and that a decision was expected on Thursday.

The trio reportedly refused to abandon their land to make way for the expansion of a local road leading to the cement factory in Aung Thabyay Village.

Locals say some of their land was already confiscated when the road was built in 2013.

"At the end of 2017, authorities from the road and transportation department said they would expend the road again. But this time we cannot give up our lands without compensation," said Daw Mya Mya.

Locals said the department sent out notices telling residents with land along the road to remove the fences around their properties and that the three were sued when they refused.

"The road is already 18 feet wide. Now they plan to expand it to be 50 feet wide and we have to give up a lot of our land without any compensation. We disagree with the plan and we were being sued. This is too much," said Daw Mya Mya.

Another Daw Mya Mya, a farmer from Thayatgone Village who refused an order to stop fencing off her land, was arrested on July 22 and is also being sued for the same offense.

The four could to sentenced to up to three years in prison if convicted.

Another four people are being sued under Article 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law for planning a protest against the cement factory.

U Thein Paing claimed that the residents of Aung Thabyay have been told that the entire village would have to be relocated once the factory, a project of the Chinese-owned Myint Investment Company, is finished.

"We don't want to move from here. We want mother Suu to help," he said, referring to State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The post 3 More Sued, Arrested in Mandalay For Opposing Cement Factory appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Thailand Asks UK to Extradite Convicted Former PM Yingluck

Posted: 31 Jul 2018 11:20 PM PDT

BANGKOK – Thailand has asked Britain to extradite former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, overthrown in a coup in 2014 and sentenced in absentia to jail for negligence, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday.

Yingluck fled the country last August to avoid being jailed over a rice subsidy scheme that ran up losses in the billions of dollars. She has denied wrongdoing and said the trial was politically motivated.

The Supreme Court sentenced her in absentia to five years’ jail last September.

Prayuth said the request was a necessary procedure between the two countries, which share an extradition treaty.

“We cannot go and arrest people abroad so it is up to that country to arrest and send [her] to us,” Prayuth said.

Yingluck and her brother, ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have been at the center of a power struggle that has dominated Thai politics for more than a decade, pitting traditional royalist and the military elite against the Shinawatra family and their supporters in the rural north and northeast.

It was not immediately clear why the government had waited until now to seek Yingluck’s extradition or how Britain would respond.

With a long-awaited general election due for some time next year, both Thaksin and Yingluck still wield significant political influence.

The junta has long maintained that it is unconcerned by the Shinawatra siblings, but critics say the military is looking to end the family’s political influence by introducing a new military-backed constitution and restrictions on political parties.

The post Thailand Asks UK to Extradite Convicted Former PM Yingluck appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Malaysia Civil Aviation Chief Resigns Over MH370 Lapses

Posted: 31 Jul 2018 10:29 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR — The chief of Malaysia’s civil aviation authority resigned on Tuesday after an investigation report on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 showed lapses by the air traffic control center in Kuala Lumpur.

The report released on Monday on the disappearance four years ago of the airliner during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board shed little fresh light on one of the biggest mysteries of modern aviation history.

In a statement announcing his resignation, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the report had highlighted failures by air traffic control to comply with standard operating procedures, but had not suggested the aviation authority was to blame for the loss of the aircraft.

“Therefore, it is with regret and after much thought and contemplation that I have decided to resign as the Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia effective 14 days from the date of the resignation notice which I have served today,” he said in the statement.

In a 495-page report, investigators said the controls of aircraft were likely deliberately manipulated to take it off course but they were unable to determine who was responsible.

The report, however, highlighted mistakes made by the Kuala Lumpur air traffic control. It said air traffic controllers failed to initiate standard emergency phases, and that there was no record that they took any action to alert the air force or kept a continuous watch on the radar display.

Addressing a news conference in Parliament, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said an internal committee would be formed to come up with recommendations and possible action that could be taken against the air traffic controllers on duty at the time.

The post Malaysia Civil Aviation Chief Resigns Over MH370 Lapses appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

Vietnam Graft Crackdown Claims First Military Scalp With ‘Little Baldy’

Posted: 31 Jul 2018 10:17 PM PDT

HANOI — A Vietnamese military court on Tuesday sentenced the first military official to go on trial in the communist-ruled country’s ongoing crackdown against corruption to 12 years in jail.

Former Colonel Dinh Ngoc He, known by his nickname “Little Baldy,” was convicted of “abusing power in performance of official duties” and “using fake documents,” the news website of state radio Voice Of Vietnam reported.

“The court said the case nature is very serious, directly harming the rightful operations of state authorities… The culprit’s action seriously affected the prestige of the military and the police,” the report said.

Vietnamese authorities have since 2016 intensified a crackdown on corruption that has led to the arrest of dozens of high-profile business figures and officials, including one member of the politburo.

The crackdown was widened earlier this year to include the military and police force.

Dinh Ngoc He abused his position as chairman of Thai Son Joint Stock Company and his military status to get contracts in key national projects, the official Vietnam News Agency said, citing a copy of the indictment.

He also abused his position to obtain military license plates for his company cars and submitted fake university test certificates to the Communist Party in a bid to increase his salary, the indictment said.

The sentencing follows the disciplining of two deputy ministers at the Ministry of Public Security on Saturday, both of whom were stripped of their party credentials by the Communist Party for “lacking responsibility,” the party’s inspection committee said.

On Monday, a Hanoi court sentenced a fugitive Vietnamese tycoon, Phan Van Anh Vu, who previously told his foreign lawyers that he was also a senior officer in Vietnam’s secret police, to nine years in prison for deliberate disclosure of state secrets.

The two cases are unrelated but both have been closely watched in Vietnam for their close ties to several senior government officials, some of whom have since been arrested.

In April, police arrested a former senior police official and a former head of the central city of Danang and placed another former chairman of the city under house arrest, after connecting them to Vu’s case.

The post Vietnam Graft Crackdown Claims First Military Scalp With ‘Little Baldy’ appeared first on The Irrawaddy.

US Says it Expects N.Korea to Uphold Promise to Give Up Nuclear Arms

Posted: 31 Jul 2018 09:38 PM PDT

WASHINGTON — The US State Department said on Tuesday it expects Pyongyang to keep its commitment made at a June leaders’ summit to give up its nuclear arms and would press southeast Asian nations during meetings this week to maintain sanctions against North Korea.

Questions have arisen over Pyongyang’s commitment to denuclearize after US spy satellite material detected renewed activity at the North Korean factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the United States.

The department left open the possibility that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could meet North Korean officials during meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore this weekend.

“We will be in some of the same meetings as North Korean officials. I certainly can’t preclude any interaction taking place, but we have no meetings on the schedule,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters.

Another State Department official, who earlier briefed reporters on Pompeo’s trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia this week, said the secretary would remind ASEAN to adhere to sanctions against Pyongyang. There are concerns that fuel is being sold illegally to North Korea despite UN sanctions, the official said.

The official said that North Korea will participate in a 27-nation regional ASEAN forum on Saturday that Pompeo will also attend.

“We remain concerned about the scale of North Korea’s illicit procurement, in particular of refined petroleum products via UN-prohibited ship-to-ship transfers,” the official said.

Under the restrictions, Pyongyang is limited to importing 4 million barrels of crude and 500,000 barrels of products a year.

Pompeo has led talks with Pyongyang to denuclearize following a June summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.

Nauert said the United States was holding Kim to the commitment he made during the summit to denuclearize.

She declined to comment on the spy satellite images.

“What we are going on is the commitment that Chairman Kim made to our president, and that is the commitment to denuclearize. That is something that we certainly anticipate that he will hold up his end of the bargain,” Nauert said.

One photo image showed a truck and covered trailer similar to those the North has used to move its ICBMs. Since the trailer was covered, it was not possible to know what, if anything, it was carrying.

Photos and infrared imaging, however, indicate vehicles moving in and out of the facility at Sanumdong, but do not show how advanced any missile construction might be.

The evidence obtained this month is the latest to suggest ongoing activity in North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities. Trump declared soon after the summit that North Korea no longer posed a nuclear threat.

The post US Says it Expects N.Korea to Uphold Promise to Give Up Nuclear Arms appeared first on The Irrawaddy.
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