Another Burmese diplomat defects to U.S.

The autocratic Burmese government faces an exodus of top diplomats from its Washington D.C. embassy with yet another envoy attempting to defect to the U.S.

The embassy's first secretary, Soe Aung, is following the footsteps of his boss, Kyaw Win, who abandoned his post as deputy chief of mission on July 4. According to the Associated Press, Aung is refusing to return home to Burma, a dictatorial Southeast Asian nation also called Myanmar.

Aung's motivations are not yet known. But Win, his superior, could not have been more clear in a public asylum request to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

He wrote that his "conscience would no longer allow" him to serve the government, controlled by a military with "uncontested power." Win's attempts to improve Burmese and U.S. relations marked him as a dangerous figure, he wrote, adding that he would fear persecution if forced to return home.

"The democracy movement in my country cannot be crushed," Win wrote. "It is alive and well and at some point will prevail."

Win's declaration fits neatly with the State Department's position on Burma, which recently held elections widely regarded as a sham.

(More from Global Post: Last call for the Burmese resistance in border camps packed with war refugees.)

The 59-year-old ex-envoy is still living in the Virginia suburbs outside D.C., according to PRI's The World, which reached him after his defection. An expert told the radio show that Win's decision marked a "propaganda coup" for the U.S. and that the State Department is likely to honor his asylum request.