During and after the Korean War, Burma balanced the interest of North and South Korea, taking into consideration the position of China.

After the 1975 establishment of diplomatic relations Burma began to shift toward North Korea, which was also nominally socialist and equally wary of Western imperialism.

Once it found out that North Koreans were behind the attack, Myanmar cut off diplomatic relations and went as far as withdrawing formal recognition of the country.

Relations began to recover during the years of the Sunshine Policy when South Korea encouraged the North's rapprochement with Myanmar.

Although the 2011–2015 Myanmar political reforms have led to the cancellation or downgrading of military ties, reports on suspicious activities have continued as of 2018[update].

After the Korean War broke out, Burma enforced the UN Security Council resolution that labeled North Korea as the aggressor.

The bomb killed 21 people, including four cabinet ministers of the President of South Korea, Chun Doo-hwan, who was visiting the country.

[8][11] North Korea conducted another act of state terrorism when its agents planted a bomb on Korean Air Flight 858, which exploded near Myanmar over the Andaman Sea.

[12] Relations gradually began improving and during the years of the Sunshine Policy South Korea encouraged their restoration.

"[13] On 25 April 2007,[14] The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) that had risen to power following the 8888 Uprising, finally formally restored the relations.

These included and small arms ammunition, 130 mm field guns, and ship mounted surface-to-surface missiles.

North Korean freighters would frequent the ports of Myanmar and technicians would visit the country, including at the Monkey Point naval facility in Yangon.

[17] The military of Myanmar was motivated because it "couldn't help but notice how North Korea stood up to the US, a harsh critic of the Burmese regime, mainly due to its nuclear program."

Next year, just days after diplomatic relations were restored, another North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, arrived at Thilawa Port.

[18] In 2008, the US blocked the flight of an Air Koryo Ilyushin Il-62 from a stopover in Mandalay in Myanmar to Iran,[17][18] believing it was carrying gyroscopes for missile guidance systems.

These countries have supported normalization of relations among themselves and Myanmar so as to deter North Korea from gaining an ally in Southeast Asia.

[24] Myanmar has, in the words of, Michael Green and Derek Mitchell "interest in following the model of North Korea and achieving military autarky by developing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons".

This characteristics explain, for instance, why the two countries, at one point, decide to change their time-zones to deviate from the international norm by half an hour.