TMH's R. Elgin has stayed interested in the warped relationship between ROK's Daewoo and Myanmar with this Brian Lee feature on an artillery deal.

“There is a watch list of countries with certain concerns. If an arms sale is made to a country on the list, it won’t be for firearms or weapons but nonlethal military equipment such as transport vehicles,” Park says.

Air Force Captain Koh Hyung-geun of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration says the list includes about 30 countries and gets updated on a case-by-case basis.

“Countries that are subject to a UN arms embargo such as Burma are included on that list,” Koh says.

As human rights groups have frequently pointed out, companies and the South Korean government have colluded on arms deals in the past, which is what happens in other nations, too.

Industry officials say international arms dealers contact South Korean companies to broker deals, but the government actively lends a helping hand.

Hong Sung-jin, an official at S&T Daewoo, says military attaches working in South Korean diplomatic missions abroad sometimes oversee contracts.

I'm surprised some South Korean bureaucrat didn't complain off-the-record about why shouldn't Koreans benefit a little when the bigger corporations and states flout their influence in Myanmar openly. Aside from the indignation, though, how different is this from selling F-16s and Mirage's? Or, negotiating a treaty with a nuclear state just to sell to sell civilian nuclear technology? And, again, a South Korean corporation takes liberty with what can possibly be called the "law" in ROK.