SUMMARY: A/S State EAP nominee Kurt Campbell will have his confirmation hearing before SFRC Asia subc. chair Jim Webb next Tuesday morning, 6/10. Rumors of "issues" are dispelled.

That pesky rumor about N. Korean nuclear assistance to Burma has been around for a couple of years, but lately it's been coming around a lot.

Informed folks can't talk explicitly, but do say they've not been shown evidence of direct NK-Burma nuclear plant activity, such as happened with Syria. Nuclear technology discussion? Ummm...another matter.

So confirmation would add further pressure on China, Russia to really cooperate with "containing" the DPRK nuclear threat, currently defined by the US as proliferation.

But after hearing for the umpteenth time lately that we should check-out what N. Korea is doing in the nuclear arena with the charmers in Burma, we did, asking a senior government official about it just this morning, in fact.

The response, brief and to the point, was that this is an "unsubstantiated rumor".

Now would Sherlock Holmes think he was actually being told it might be true, because, after all, said senior government official didn't reply that the whole thing is balderdash, don't make a fool of yourself?

We will confess to the temptation, but were saved, for today, at least, with an informed source who said that while the facts which HAVE been briefed cannot be discussed, it would be accurate to say that no facts have been briefed on any DPRK nuclear plant (a la Syria) to Burma.

And, the source added, while one would "highly doubt" the DPRK has done that, WERE any such facts to be briefed, that would indeed be a very big deal.

Having carefully led us through the briar patch, however, the source went on to note that it's long been on public record that Burma and N. Korea have extended military ties and sales, including a military cooperation agreement, and, of course, that Russia has supplied Burma with a nuclear power plant.

Accordingly, "it's not hard to imagine North Korean nuclear technology talks with Burma."

Oh oh...wait...what are you trying to tell us?

Sigh...