YANGON (TIP): Myanmar has no military ties with North Korea, a Myanmar official said on Monday, as a US diplomat responsible for North Korea arrived for talks in which he is likely to seek assurances on efforts to isolate it.

Ambassador Joseph Yun was set to meet Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the military’s commander in chief in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Monday, according to the U.S. Embassy in Yangon. Yun attended a conference in Singapore over the weekend focusing on tension on the Korean peninsula over the North’s unrelenting nuclear and missile programmes. Ambassador Joseph Yun’s trip to Asia was announced after North Korea’s test on July 4 of on intercontinental ballistic missile that it says can carry a large nuclear warhead and some experts believe has the range to reach Alaska. Myanmar is the only other stop on his trip, pointing to concern in Washington that Myanmar’s army, which used to have ties with North Korea, continues to give succour to Kim Jong Il’s regime. (Reuters)