This article was revised, with an eye to self-criticism, on August 23, 2019.
In 1963 (Juche 52), the Arab Socialist Party, more accurately called the Ba’athists, came to power. However, it was not until 1970 (Juche 59) that the first of the Assads came to power. Hafiz Assad would remain the country’s president from 1971 (Juche 60) to 2000 (Juche 89), followed by Abdul Halim Khaddam as an interim president, and Bashar Al-Assad after him from 2000 (Juche 89) to the present-day. As I wrote out in my previous post, Syria was (and is) undeniably a socially democratic state, especially after the Western-friendly reforms in the 2000s, making the IMF smile with glee, which was only partially reversed as a result of the imperialist attack on Syria beginning in 2011. Through all of this, the DPRK was an ally of the government, which, you could say, engaged in a national liberation struggle to oust imperialists, although this was not totally the case as the Ba’athists engaged in bourgeois Arab nationalism. Still, the role of the DPRK, which has, like Cuba, sent doctors abroad to countries such as Syria, is worth noting.
On July 25, 1966 (Juche 55), the DPRK and Syria established diplomatic relations. This was celebrated in 2016 (Juche 105), in a solidarity meeting at the Chollima Hall of Culture in August, as “an epochal event and landmark in boosting the bilateral cooperative relations and the friendly ties between the peoples of the two countries.” [1] The same article in Rodong Sinmun described the relations as one between comradely states (bolding is my emphasis):
The DPRK and Syria have waged a common struggle in the same trench of the anti-imperialist struggle to protect the sovereignty of the countries and global peace and security. This is a clear proof that the bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation forged and cultivated by the great leaders with much care remain very strong. Though the old generation and century are replaced by the new ones, the DPRK-Syria friendship is steadily growing stronger true to the behests of the great preceding leaders. The Syrian people are eal victory of the cause of the Juche revolution by upholding the Party’s Songun politics and line of simultaneously developing the two fronts in defiance of the U.S. imperialists’ moves to stifle the DPRK. The service personnel and people of the DPRK send invariable support and firm solidarity to the Syrian government and pxpressing positive support and solidarity for the service personnel and people of the DPRK in the struggle to bring earlier the final veople in their just struggle to beat back the invasion and terrorism by the hostile forces at home and abroad and ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. The DPRK government and people will as ever stand by the Syrian government and people in their joint struggle for independence against imperialism.”
Bourgeois scholars even recognize the connection, declaring that “since the 1960s, North Korea has sold arms and equipment to Syria, and provided other sorts of military-to-military assistance, such as training and technical assistance” (while spuriously claiming that the DPRK helped develop “Syria’s chemical weapons and ballistic missile programs”), the two countries have a “long history of military cooperation…[that] goes back many years,” and that their connections are “far deeper and more entrenched than many Middle East analysts realize.” [2] They also state that Syria is one of the few countries in the world which “established diplomatic relations with North Korea, but not South Korea” in the post-Cold War environment.
A major watershed moment in 1relations between the two countries was the sending of a contingent of 25 pilots from the DPRK to Syria during the war of 1967 (Juche 56), assisting the Syrian air force by defending the “airspace over Damascus,” called the “Six Day War” or called “an-Naksah,” meaning “the setback” in Arabic. [3] This was a war fought, between June 5 and 10th, between a coalition of Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, which were assisted by Algeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq, fighting against the Zionists for 132 hours and 30 minutes, a little less than 6 days, with the war fought on the Syrian side for the whole time, and shorter on the Egyptian and Jordanian fronts. While Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion of the Zionist state feared that “unless the US and USSR are coming much nearer to each other and stop sending arms to the Arabs – I am afraid there will be no peace in the Middle East,” with “peace” meaning room for Zionist expansion, the result of the war was large land grabs by the Zionists in the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula (which they gave up), the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, with claims the war showed “Arab weakness” and Zionist strength (leading to Zionist “pride”), claimed “anti-Jewish” behavior in Arab countries after the war, and others claiming that the Soviets “instigated” the war, which is also questionable. [4] With this, it is worth remembering that before the war, on May 29, the commander of the UN force noted that “two Israel[i] aircraft violated…[the] air space over Gaza” of the United Arab Republic (renamed the Arab Republic of Egypt in 1971), with skirmished between all involved, the Egyptians arguing that the Zionists committed “treacherous aggression” and were trying to block the Suez canal. In November 1967, the UN Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 242, calling for the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict,” and the termination “of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force,” among other aspects.
What about the war itself, which has a dedicated chapter in the history of the U$ State Department? For one, some advisers admitted that “Israelis had jumped off on minimum provocation in a very purposeful effort to deal with air power and then go after the UAR armies…assembled in the Sinai” meaning that the Zionists struck first in an effort of aggression (one document says “this is an Israeli initiative“), with LBJ even seeing the war was “a mistake by the Israelis,” telling them that directly. Other documents note that the Soviets wanted hostilities to cease, putting to bed the myth that they “instigated” hostilities by siding with/supporting the Arabs, while noting that Zionist aggression had occurred. As an assessment at the end of the war of Soviet foreign policy in the Middle East acknolwedged, “we do not believe that the Soviets planned or initiated the Middle Eastern crisis…[they] were developments which the USSR did not desire, initially did not foresee and, later, could not forestall.”
The cables to show that the murderous empire sided with the Zionists, with comment by Walt Rostow that “so long as the war is roughly moving in Israeli’s favor, I believe we can shorten it by getting at the substance of a settlement at the earliest possible time,” ringing their hands about “Arab provocations,” and efforts to split the states against the Zionists apart, while they called for “restraint” and were surprised that the Soviets called them participators in the Zionist aggression, which was evident, with support for Zionist “self-defense” as another example, without a doubt,while they denied direct involvement. With the imperialist warplanes staying away, there was also concern about the “large American and foreign community in Jordan,” with Arabs in the UN feeling “that the USSR had let them down,” push for the Johnson administration to be more Zionist, with some saying that “the continuing delay in convening the Security Council is very much in Israel’s interest so long as Israeli forces continue their spectacular military success…The delay serves Israel, damages the Soviet position and still further discredits the United Nations” which almost sounds like an endorsement, declaration that “the destruction of Nasser as an effective Pan-Arabist is fundamental to our hopes for gaining a reasonably quick settlement…with Nasser remove…the Middle East would probably be relieved…of the intense and effective extremism that has been constantly stimulated by the Nasser charisma and the UAR political propaganda apparatus,” and saying that “Israel has no intention of going on to Damascus. It is trying physically to silence the Syrian gun positions but they are well emplaced, almost impervious to air attacks, and have to be taken by ground assault.” The empire was concerned, that after the war, “to the average Arab there is no doubt that we [the empire] would by this time be militarily involved on Israel’s side if she were being attacked by Arabs as she is now attacking them” and said that “the Syrians reluctantly had agreed to a cease fire only after the Israelis had done so. The Syrians then engaged in a wholesale destruction of the Israeli side of the line,” with the Soviets breaking diplomatic relations with the Zionists after the war.
In a three-part interview, Norman Finkelstein talked with with the progressive news outlet, The Real News, about the 1967 war. In the first part he argued the “the big question for Israel in 1967 was not whether they were going to prevail over the Arabs…Their big concern was, how would the US react?”with the Zionists knowing that “Nasser wasn’t going to attack” and the “the war was over, really literally, it was over in about six minutes” since after the Zionists “flattened the Egyptian Air Force…then the ground troops had no air support. It was over. The only reason it lasted six days is because they wanted to grab territory,” with the Soviets warning the nearby Arab states that the Zionists would attack. Additionally, Finkelstein argued that “Palestinian commando raids, mostly supported by the Syrian regime” occurred because “of the Israeli land grab in the demilitarized zones” with uncalled for aggression by the Zionists, with the U$ not opposing the aggression but not supporting it openly. In the second part he argued that the war “knocked out Nasser, knocked out radical Arab nationalism, finished it off, which the U.S. wanted to finish off also,” adding that after the war the Zionists popularized the “image of the Jewish fighter” with the Zionists shocked by the war in 1973 (Juche 62) because “had internalized all the racist [thinking that] Arabs can’t fight…[and] didn’t believe that the Arabs can mount an attack on Israel.” In the final part of the interview, Finkelstein argued that the U$-backed “peace process” never meant to end Zionist occupation of illegally occupied territories of the Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza.
Assistance by the DPRK during the war was followed by conventional weapons such as “rifles, artillery, mortars, machine guns, ammunition, bombs, armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, and multiple rocket launchers” given to the Syrian military by the Koreans over the years, which bourgeois analysts sneer at without question. What one Spanish-speaking comrade named Fekerfanta, said is relevant here [5]:
Since the creation of present-day Syria, North Korea has shown great solidarity with the country, especially on two issues of great importance, the first, the development of agriculture, lending all its heavy agricultural technology on the state lands of Syria…and in the development of energy.
In 1970 (Juche 59), the DPRK showed its continual strong support for Syria. 200 tank crewmen, 140 missile technicians, and 53 pilots were dispatched to the country. [6] Around the same time, conventional weapons such as rifles, artillery, rocket launchers, anti-tank weapons, and tanks were supplied to Syria. In 1973 (Juche 62), 30 pilots from the DPRK participated in the October (liberation) war, which is called the “Yom Kippur War” by the Zionists, led by Arab states of Syria and Egypt, with the latter states supported by expeditionary forces of the Saudis, East Germans, Pakistanis, Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Libyans, Tunisians, Algerians, Moroccans, and Cubans, while being supported by the Soviets. These pilots aided the Syrian air force, likely directly fighting the Zionists as they flew Egyptian and Syrian jet fighters, with KPA (Korean People’s Army) Chief of General Staff Kim Kyok Sik coordinating this assistance. [7] Sik would later help coordinate “post-war rehabilitation of Syrian armed forces in the mid-1970s” which included the sending of 40 MiG pilots and 75 air force instructors in 1975 (Juche 64) and 1976 (Juche 65), with these individuals providing training, along with sending its artisans to “build a commemorative museum in Cairo” and selling 300 “recoilless guns” to Syria in 1978 (Juche 67), to give an example. Into the 1980s, the DPRK provided Syria with “military instructors and arms” including air defense systems, and also “helped upgrade hundreds of Soviet-made T-54 and T-55 tanks in service with the Syrian Arab Army,” to give some examples.
Such acts of solidarity with Syria are not surprising. As a top adviser to the ROK president, Moon Chung-in, noted in 2007 (Juche 96), the DPRK “sees Israel as an invader and has been willing to support military action by the Arabs that promotes Palestinian liberation. Solidarity between North Korea and the Arabs has been bolstered by maintaining security relations, which go far beyond diplomatic rhetoric.” [8] This should be celebrated, rather than condemned, which the Zionists want us to do.
In the 1980s, the DPRK continued its strong support. During the 1982 (Juche 71) uprising of Islamic reactionaries, some claimed they operated “122 millimeter truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers.” [9] Whether that was true or not, even bourgeois analysts have to admit that special operations forces were deployed to Syria to “help train the conventional Syrian Arab Army and its allies in insurgency tactics,” especially during the Lebanese Civil War in 1982 (Juche 71), with 25 of them reportedly killed by the IDF, and reportedly varying military instructors were sent through the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The U$ Intelligence community acknowledged this in their June 1985 (Juche 74) Special National Intelligence Assessment saying that the DPRK had an unknown number of advisers and gave the country gunpowder, claiming that “most military shipments to PLO routed through Syria,” which, if true, would be another effort of support for Palestinian liberation. This was, as some acknowledged, part of a “mutually beneficial relationship” between the DPRK and Syria, which included some Syrian military officers educated at educational institutions inside the DPRK, such as Kim Il Sung Military University which was continued until 2013 (Juche 102), and likely is still an occurrence. Reportedly, Kim Jong Il even followed, “with interest” the careers of several general officers from Syria who has graduated from the university.
Then, we come to the 1990s. With the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 (Juche 80), both Syria and the DPRK, which were not “client states” as anti-communist analysts claim but were independent countries, were hit by a loss of “strategic support that the Soviets had provided them,” forcing both to reportedly “abandon the dream of “strategic parity” with Seoul and Tel Aviv,” adopting a formula of “strategic deterrence” instead. [10] Additionally, as the DPRK refused overtures by the Zionists to “establish diplomatic relations,” the Syrians “rejected past ROK attempts to normalize relations.” As such, the two countries continued to support each other, with Pak Ui Chun,the foreign minister of the DPRK, serving as the Ambassador of the DPRK to Syria in the early 1990s, with secretaries of the WPK, Kim Yang Gon and Kim Yong Il, receiving senior officials from Syria on “numerous occasions.” The relations were so strong that in January 1997 (Juche 86), Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria, stated that the position of Syria “recognizing only the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the Korean peninsula” would be unchanged. A few years later, in October 1999 (Juche 88), the still-standing October Liberation War Panorama Hall opened in Syria. Within it is the Tishreen War Panorama (finished in 1998), titled officially “Operations for the liberation of Kunaittiru City during the October War,” which measures 15 x 125 m, which was painted by varying artists of the Mansudae Art Studio: O Gwang Ho, Ri Gap ll, Ham Gwan Sop, Ham Gun Nam, Ju Gwang Hyok, Yun Hong Chol, Ri Yong Nam, Jang Chi Bok, Hong Gyong Nam, Ri Jong Gap, An Dok Yong, Jang Chol Ho, Im Gon ll, Ri Jae Su, Choi Song Sik, Mun Su Chol, Cha Yo Sang, Mun Dok Gi, Jang Sung Ho, and Jin Chol Jin.
As the new century began, the relationship remained strong. In June 2000 (Juche 89) and July 2002 (Juche 91), Kim Yong Yam, President of the SPA Presidium, traveled to Syria, just has he had done in July 1992 as Foreign Minister, showing that it is undoubtedly true that “many senior DPRK leaders have either visited Syria over the past two decades or worked closely with its government” as was written in 2013. [11] In January 2002 (Juche 91), in a measure of solidarity, vice-minister of the Syrian foreign ministry, Suleyman Hadad, went to Pyongyang and told the vice-President of the SPA Presidium, Yang Hyong Sop, that “the Syrian people would stand firm on the side of the heroic Korean people” with a statement issued not long after by the Syrian government saying the U$ was the real “axis of evil” and expressed “full support for the DPRK’s stance.” This shows that the anti-imperialist positions go both ways. The following year, 2003 (Juche 92), after Syria was accused of “providing Saddam’s armies with military supplies, following the US invasion of Iraq,” Rodong Sinmun urged the U$ to stop its “anti-Syria campaign” and later that year the government of the DPRK “dismissed the U.S. decision [to impose sanctions on Syria] as a product of its desperate moves to interfere in the internal affairs of Syria and destroy its economic system from A to Z.” Also that year, after the DPRK announced it was withdrawing from the Non-Profileration Treaty (NPT), a leading member of the Syrian Arab Socialist Baath Party, Wolid Hamdoun, who headed the Syrian Arab-Korea Friendship Association, and the director general of the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), Gaji al Dib, told the ambassador of the DPRK that “Syria and the DPRK are standing in the same trench of the struggle against the U.S. vicious and aggressive offensives and expressed full support to the principled stand and decision of People’s Korea.” [12]
In the years to come, the relationship remained a strong one. In 2004 (Juche 93), some claimed that a “a dozen Syrian technicians” were killed in an explosion at the train station in Ryongchon, near the Chinese border which they thought was an apparent assassination attempt to kill Kim Jong Il. [13] Whether that happened, the fact is that this shows a strong relationship. Then there’s the famed military strike in September 2007 (Juche 96) by the Zionists, which they have never officially confirmed. In this act of military aggression, which they called “Operation Orchard,” the Zionists dropped 17 tons of explosives on a supposed “secret nuclear reactor” in Syria, near Al Kibar, reportedly killing 10 technicians from the DPRK, with claims that the latter helped build and/or supply this supposed “gas-cooled, graphite-moderated” reactor (the IAEA said it “appeared” to look like a reactor which isn’t reassuring), which some claimed looked like the reactor in Yongbyong. [14] While this incident is broadly still shrouded in mystery, it does seem evident that the strike happened, although it cannot be confirmed if they hit a nuclear reactor or another building as the accounts of the incident usually come from sources favorable to Zionists, and that it was green-lighted by the U$, with Mossad reportedly breaking into the “Vienna home of Syria’s Atomic Agency director,” finding photos of the building which reportedly “showed North Korean workers in the facility,” with these findings reportedly confirmed by the U$ intelligence community. If it really was a reactor, then this was not “one of the greatest acts of nuclear proliferation in history” as Zionists claimed, but was rather an act of cowardly aggression, showing that the Zionists were afraid their nuclear deterrent would be ruined. The Spanish-speaking comrade named Fekerfanta, who I mentioned earlier, accepts that it was a nuclear reactor, but what he writes is worth repeating [15]:
The story is simple, Syria was building a nuclear power plant with the help of North Korea. This, it seems, did not please Israel very much, so with US authorization, it launched an air strike on Syrian sovereign land, destroying the power station. In this attack, 10 North Korean workers died. Imagine if it had been the other way around, if North Korea had bombed a nuclear facility in another country, the one that had been set up, right?
That is something the DPRK haters don’t consider. Such arguments which put the situation in a different context is always an important way of debunking lies about countries which are under attack by imperialists.
Fast forward to 2010 (Juche 99). That year, the foreign minister of the Zionist state, Avigdor Lieberman, declared, when visiting Japan in May that Iran, Syria, and the DPRK were an “axis of evil” (echoing Bush II’s old rhetoric), declaring that they “pose the biggest threat to world security because they are building and spreading weapons of mass destruction.” This was coupled with an upon that year published in a Yale University comment blog, declaring that “to prevent further proliferation, North Korea’s activities need to be exposed, penalized, and disrupted.” [16] Of course, the latter is what the imperialists want without question. The former could more accurately be applied to the U$ since it is the largest arms dealer in the world. With that, some still have the galls to call for gun control, while this racket remained unchecked!
In 2011 (Juche 100), the situation changed. The imperialist attack on Syria began. You could say that the protests had “good roots” originally, but that isn’t even assured. What is clear is that the DPRK replenished the lost equipment of the Syrian government with T-55 tanks, “trucks, RPGs and shoulder-fired missiles,” if one believes the varied claims in bourgeois media. [17] If one discounts these, it is still the fact that Kim Jong Un “joined the Assad government [not literally] to actively fight against the anti-government rebels in Syria, many of whom are affiliated with Al-Qaeda,” with the DPRK’s government saying it is a duty to “help a legitimate sovereign government in the fight against international terrorism in Syria.”
Then we come to 2013 (Juche 102). That year, Bashar Al-Assad, President of Syria, cited the war in Korea, along with other aggression in “Vietnam, Lebanon, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq” as the mainstay of U$ policy, while also recalling that “American policy in South America where it instigated military coups and caused the deaths of millions; tens of governments were toppled as a result of American policy.” In terms of the relationship between the two countries, in August, Kim Yong Nam met Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader Al Halqi in Tehran, with the latter saying “Syria regards the DPRK as a military power with tremendous military force and a country of comrades-in-arms struggling against the common enemy” while others recognized that the DPRK has time and time again “expressed its support for Syria, condemning foreign forces and calling for the expulsion of the country.” [18] That same year there were claims by the notoriously unreliable Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR), an one-person outfit of Rami Adel Rahman founded in May 2006 which is based in the “two-bedroom Coventry home of Syrian immigrant Rami Abdel Rahman” with unknown sources on the “ground in Syria” whose “director” admits that he is “not a media organization,” that officers of the DPRK who spoke Arabic were deployed around Aleppo, reportedly playing a key role in the battle for Qusair, a symbolic victory for the government, while others ringed their hands with false claims about they claimed was a “Pyongyang-Damascus axis.” It should give comrades pause that KCNA is saying that this is misinformation floated by foreign media, meaning that one should not accept this just because it is in bourgeois media, not at all.Even if you took from Kim Jong Un’s meeting with a Syrian government delegation that year that the DPRK would support Syria, which is the only “Mediterranean nation to maintain diplomatic relations with North Korea without formally recognizing the South,” or supposedly “carefully read” the denial by the DPRK foreign ministry to think that “North Korean arms and military advisors may indeed be engaged on the battlefields of the Syrian civil war,” it is better to stick with the facts, not unsubstantiated claims. As such, it is clear that Syria and the DPRK support each other, with Kim Jong Un exchanging “personal letters on ten different occasions,” more than any other leader of a foreign country, including the Chinese! Both countries face a “an acute security dilemma” as they work to force foreign troops out of areas which are their homelands, with both countries with a “long history of extensive bilateral military-to-military ties.”
In 2014 (Juche 103) relations were strengthened without a doubt. That year, Syria asked the DPRK to “help monitor its presidential elections” which they probably thought of as an honor, as this is an important duty for any country. [19] Also, the DPRK was one of the 20 countries which urged the “independent international commission of inquiry on human rights in Syria” probe into “grave human rights violations committed by terrorists in Syria.” Also, the ambassador of the DPRK, Jang Myong Ho, to Syria, expressed that he was “confident the Syrian people and army will achieve stability and security in the country,” the Syrian Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Mohammad Amer al-Mardini, discussed, with Jang Myong Ho, possible “cooperation prospects in higher education and scientific research,” and Syrian Prime Minister, Dr. Wael al-Halaqi, said that both of their countries have been “standing up to the US, imperialism, and Zionism for decades, facing attempts to control them, destabilize them, and interfere in their internal affairs.” Additionally, apart from the minister of the DPRK received by Bashar Al-Assad himself, receiving a delegation from the DPRK and accepting the credentials of the ambassador, there were discussions about cooperation in varying areas, including in agriculture, there were calls to bolster economic ties between the two countries, and the signing of various agreements. With that, the sentiment of common solidarity was expressed.
We then get to 2015 (Juche 104). Apart from publishing a timeline that listed September 9th as the day in 1948 (Juche 37) that the DPRK was founded, or the day in 1973 (Juche 62) that Cuba cut “diplomatic relations with the Israeli occupation,” Syria dedicated a park in Damascus to Kim Il Sung in September. [20] The park, which is 9,000-square-metres, lies “in the southwestern Damascus district of Kafr Souseh,” with the ceremony to name the park held on the 70th anniversary of the formation of the WPK and the DPRK, with Syrian officials praising Kim Il Sung and the government of the DPRK. At the ceremony where the park was opened, which was accompanied by a monument to Kim Il Sung, a member of the Al-Baath Arab Socialist Party and had of the Syrian-Korean friendship association, Fairouz Moussa, spoke about the relations between the two countries, as did Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister of Syria, Fayssal Mikdad, and the Ambassador of the DPRK in Damascus, Jang Myong Ho. The same year, the DPRK supported Syria’s fight against terrorism, while Syria affirmed “support for peacefully settling the situation on the [Korean] peninsula and keeping away the specter of war that jeopardizes regional and international peace and security,” voiced support for the statement of the DPRK, Bashar Al-Assad emphasizing that Syria and the DPRK “are being targeted because they are among those few countries which enjoy real independence and because they stand in one ditch against the very enemy that seeks to change the national identity of their peoples,” Assad naming Tammam Ahmad Suleiman as “Syria’s ambassador to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)” and Syria congratulating Cuba on reaching an “agreement with the United States that lifts the blockade imposed on it,” while renewing he call to “lift and stop all unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria and the peoples of other countries such as DPRK, Venezuela and Belarus.”
In a great rebuttal of the claim that Cuban or DPRK troops were in the country, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said in an interview with the Syrian Ikhbariya TV, that “Cuban or North Korean forces [are not] on the Syrian soil” because “Russia’s presence is more than sufficient.” This is probably the best rebuttal of such lies. Additionally, a minister of the DPRK was received, economic support of the latter of Syria was discussed, and Syria’s support of the DPRK was also emphasized. Additionally, there were calls to enhance youth ties, have a program for cultural cooperation, and have stronger agricultural cooperation between the two countries. This all goes back to the idea that both countries have a common enemy, which can be countered with stronger relations, which is undeniably the case.
In 2016 (Juche 105), strong relations between the DPRK and Syria continued abound. Echoing the claims of SOHR years earlier, the delegation of the Free Syrian Army, backed by the Saudis, claimed that “two North Korean units are there [in Syria], which are Chalma-1 and Chalma-7,” with one bourgeois analyst having to admit that “there is no hard evidence that North Korean troops are on the ground fighting alongside the pro-Assad forces or that Pyongyang is currently providing material support to the Syrian government…the evidence is not conclusive…there are no publicly accessible pictures of North Korean soldiers on the ground and no reports of North Korean soldiers killed, captured, or wounded in Syria,” showing the weakness of their case. Hence, their claims about units from the DPRK in Syria are laughable since they are so weak they are like a line of dominoes ready to be pushed over with the tap of one’s finger. [21]
The relationship between Syria and the DPRK was as strong as ever. In August, The same month, Tammam Sulaiman and other officials from the Syrian embassy visited “the Youth Movement Museum on Wednesday on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the DPRK and Syria.” In November, Sulaiman and Syrian embassy individuals visited the Mansudae Art Studio on “the 46th anniversary of the corrective movement in Syria” and paid tribute to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, along with being briefed on the fact that studio was “built as the world-level art production base under the care of the peerlessly great persons of Mt. Paektu,” looking around various “production rooms and the art exhibition hall.” While the Syrian media reprinting statements of the DPRK resisting U$ imperialism and calling for a peace treaty ending the Korean war, along with reprinting Kim Jong Un’s New Years Address, the DPRK criticized terrorist acts in Syria while reiterating their “full support and solidarity with the just struggle of the government and people of the Syrian Arab Republic to foil the hostile forces’ challenge and aggression” and harshly criticizing “air strikes against Syria being made by the U.S. and the West under the pretext of “anti-terrorism war.””
There were other forms of exchange between the two countries. Varied Korean organizations attended events in Syria, while there were calls to enhance cooperation between the two countries, especially in the area of health, with support of the DPRK by Syria also emphasized. In Rodong Sinmun, there are varied news articles on Syrian-Korean relations. Apart from congratulating the ruling party of Syria, with this same ruling party congratulating the WPK in turn, the vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the WPK, Ri Su Yong, met the Syrian ambassador, Sulaiman in June. In a show of further solidarity, Bashar Al-Assad sent 13 messages to Kim Jong Un throughout the year on topics such as honoring Kim Jong Il five years after his death, cooperative relations between the two countries, thanked Kim Jong Un for remembering his birthday, and consolation on the damage to people’s lives, property, and infrastructure in North Hamgyong Province from a flood, and many other topics including congratulating Kim Jong Un on his election as “chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK at the Fourth Session of the 13th Supreme People’s Assembly” on June 29. [22] The same was the case for messages from Kim Jong Un himself. He sent eight messages to Assad on similar topics, such as honoring the “anniversary of the corrective movement in Syria,” the 51st birthday of Assad, remembering (and hoping for stronger) cooperation between the two countries, and expressing “deepest condolences and sympathy to Bashar Al-Assad over the death of Anisa Makhlouf,” his mother. [23]
In 2017 (Juche 106), the two countries continued to hold together in a strong bond of solidarity. In interviews that year, Bashar Al-Assad cited the DPRK as one of the countries “which say the truth as it is and take a principled and moral position…[and] do not do the West’s bidding” also saying this list included “Belarus, Russia, [and] Iran” and also said that the U$ wants to “control all the states of the world without exception” saying that “what is happening to Syria, to Korea, to Iran, to Russia, and maybe to Venezuela now, aims at re-imposing American hegemony on the world.” Bourgeois media that year grumbled about Kim Jong Un congratulating Syria’s ruling party on its “founding anniversary,” the gratitude Assad showed toward Iran and the DPRK for supporting the Syrian fight against terrorism, and once again claiming that war materials from the DPRK “ended up in Syria,” citing magical UN reports we can’t see, feeding the never-ending Orientalist rumor-mill (even claiming there are Korean workers in Damascus). [24] These outlets, coupled with Zionists, did acknowledge that Syria and the DPRK “share anti-imperialist world views that bind them together” and have a “symbiotic relationship” which should be seen as a positive, with others angry about the alliance between the two countries, saying it “poses a long-term security threat to the United States and its allies in the Middle East and Asia,” with some support for murderous measures against the country. It was also noted that the sloppy cruise missile attack by the orange menace could be designed to intimidate the DPRK (and send a message to China), but this didn’t work because the former state said that the strike on Syria vindicates the push to strengthen their nuclear program as a form of self-defense.
Moving away from the horrid bourgeois media, it is worth looking at state media which is more accurate in delineating relationships between the two countries. In March, Kim Jong Un congratulated Bashar Al-Assad “on the 54th anniversary of the March 8 revolution in Syria” while in April another message was sent to Assad, with another message of congratulations, this one saying that the “Baath Arab Socialist Party has achieved great successes in their struggle for building an independent and prosperous country and safeguarding the unity and dignity, regional peace and security for the past seven decades since its founding” and called for stronger relations between the two countries. In August, a delegation from the Syria Baath Children Organization, led by Waddah Sawas, director of the Technology, Information and External Relations Department, visited Mangyongdae, Kim Il Sung’s birthplace, and also “toured the Tower of the Juche Idea, the Youth Movement Museum, Pyongyang Primary School No. 4, [and] the Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace,” to name a few attractions. With the Syrian media noting the Korean people and the Korean embassy in Damascus marking the birth of Kim Jong Il 75th birthday on February 16, there were also calls for stronger cooperation, and relations in general, especially in the area of economics. To the chagrin of anti-Korea outlets like NK News, the DPRK declared in November it wanted to help Syria rebuild itself (a noble declaration) after all these years of war.
Before getting to Rodong Sinmun, there was an interview with Sulaiman, the Ambassador o Syria to the DPRK. [25] It was in an anti-Korean outlet, but what it said is worth noting. Sulaiman works day-to-day, helping maintain the friendship between the two countries, while following “news from Syria, day-by-day, minute-by-minute,” noting that
In every meeting, every function, every symposium, every international meeting, the DPRK expresses support to us, they express solidarity – not only the media, even from the people. It is not only a policy issue, it is a massive popular thing for the Korean people to stand in support of Syria, with the Syrian people.
This is broadly not recognized by haters of the DPRK. He goes on to say that while there is no military cooperation between the two countries now, there is a history of “normal military cooperation and technical experience exchange,” laughing off the idea that missile scientists and weapons experts from the DPRK helped out in the early years of the imperialist attack on Syria. Sulaiman, who was in New York City from 1994 (Juche 83) to 2000 (Juche 89) at the UN, then in Australia until 2013 (Juche 102) when he moved to Pyongyang, “initially as chargé d’affaires at the embassy.” In describing his experience, he said that the country is “very beautiful” and “very friendly” even to foreigners with a lot of diplomatic activity back-and-forth, with continual opportunities to meet others, as he marvels “at their organization and punctuality in assembling all the different ambassadors, heads of missions or staff of UN organizations … (to) go at a certain time to visit the landmarks and different places. I like it very much.” As NK News grumbles that Syria doesn’t use the “human rights” charade against the DPRK, Sulaiman says that “we in Syria respect the people of Korea – the DPRK – the leadership, (and) the relations we have,” doesn’t feel any alienation in the North, and while he complains about the “expense of some of the stuff and materials that are brought to Pyongyang,” like a bar of laurel soap coming from Aleppo, basic things like vegetables have a “fine” price. Instead of summarizing everything else he says in the article, it is worth quoting what he has to say:
We have a bi-annual joint high-level ministerial commission that meets once in Pyongyang and once in Damascus. And then there are agreements in the economic field, in the cultural, educational, tourism, sports, and many other things. But in the last years because of the situation in Syria mainly – I wouldn’t say in Korea…things are a bit halted. [Now] it is from our side that things are not going as normal as one would expect…Of course, we belong to different cultures in the Arab and Asian regions, but we have a lot in common to address the issues that really are at stake in the current times. The relations are strong, basically, because we share the same values: the same suffering, the same mentality, the same orientation…[both DPRK and Syria suffer from] the same colonial problem: when the U.S. intervened during the Korean War and, of course, the same thing happened in our region with Israel…Western countries [which impose sanctions]are the main reason for the wretched case of the people in either country…I will answer anything you ask about human rights; anything,..But put it across the board. If it is across the board and to the same standard, we accept it, no question, no problem. [As long as U$ officials go to Saudi Arabia] and bow to them… where women aren’t allowed to drive cars and are forced to wear headscarves, [criticism of the DPRK is unfair when] they only single out one country, then we refuse to see it. If you ask ‘why is North Korea making nuclear armaments?’ [then] I as a friend of Korea, I would say ‘first put all countries under question and then I’ll answer you.’ Ban Ki-moon never showed any integrity in his work. Not towards North Korea, not towards Syria…I lived in in New York, because of my work with the United Nations, for six years and when I see…these so-called accusations against Trump, that he is President Putin’s ally, I ask myself this question: ‘Why not?’ “hat is wrong with having good relations with Russia? Why must there be animosity between the U.S. and Russia?”…The only thing the U.S. could do is a military invasion of this country…my feeling is that this is impossible: I don’t think the U.S. can intervene in a country like the DPRK. I think this country is more fortified than one can imagine, because there is unity between the people and the leadership…escalation will do more damage to the U.S. and its interests in the region than damage to this country…I visited many other countries, [but when] I look at this country I see that out of severe poverty… they do miracles here, really…And it’s not like I’m saying what the state media says. In our country we don’t have this: we thought that we were living in prosperity before the war. This country, after the sanctions and with the skills that they have, they are making miracles…I look at it and believe this is really a great country and I wish every country was like North Korea in their achievements and miracles. What if they were not under sanctions? They would do even more.
Beyond what Sulaiman has to say, the Koreans showed their thanks and solidarity. At the Tenth Plenary Session of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly in Turkey from November 21 to 23, Ri Jong Hyok, SPA deputy and director of the National Reunification Institute, leading the SPA delegation, made a speech at the plenary session, saying in the conclusion that “I would like to express unreserved support to and solidarity with the peoples in Asian countries including Iran, Syria and Palestine who are struggling to put an end to the interference of foreign forces and to defend the sovereignty of the nation.” Additionally, Rodong Sinmun noted that the Socialist Unionist Party of Syria formed a “committee for remembering leader Kim Jong Il” with this committee headed by General Secretary Adnan Ismail, and the committing organizing “political and cultural events in praise of Kim Jong Il’s exploits in the period from Nov. 16 to Dec. 18.” Additionally, apart from criticism of the cruise missile attack, called the “Shayrat missile strike” on Wikipedia, on Syria by the orange menace on April 7th, representatives of the DPRK at the UN criticized U$ scheming to “overthrow the legitimate government of Syria by continuously stretching out its claws of aggression” and turning a “blind eye to the heinous acts of Israel…while condemning in every manner only the Syrian government fighting to protect its national sovereignty and security should not be tolerated any longer.” [26] Interestingly, the Koreans criticized the Chinese response to the military attack, saying they may have felt it wasn’t a “big deal” and implying they were courted by the imperialists, again showing the independence of the country from domination. In terms of the relationship between the two countries on varied occasions Syrian delegations, of the Syria Baath Children Organization, Syrian General Sports Union, and members of the Syrian embassy there, were in the DPRK, specifically visiting in Mangyongdae (birthplace of Kim Il Sung), Pyongyang, as recounted in seven articles in Rodong Sinmun, and an agreement about “exchange and cooperation in sports” was inked. [27] Apart from this, there were also the typical diplomatic greetings. Assad sent greetings to Kim Jong Un on nine occasions that year on topics ranging from cooperation between the two countries, founding anniversaries of the WPK, birth of Kim Il Sung and the DPRK, to name a few, especially thanking the DPRK for its support (and solidarity). [28] In response, Kim Jong Un sent his greetings, with the president of the SPA (Kim Yong Nam) even sending a message to Assad while Kim Su Kil of the WPK met the Syria’s Baath Arab Socialist Party at the 19th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties in Russia. Unlike previous years, the same number of messages were sent to Syria by the Koreans, covering subjects such as “congratulation and militant greeting to the Syrian president on his 52nd birthday” and on Assad’s re-election, than from Syria’s leaders. [29]
This year, 2018 (Juche 107) the relations continue to strengthen without question. While the bourgeois media declares that “the US intends to make Syria an international pariah state much like North Korea,” the reality of the situation is that there are “deep-rooted friendly relations binding the two countries,” with the Koreans praising the Syrians shooting down “an Israeli F-16 jet which had attacked the Syrian territory, stressing that Syria has the right to defend itself by taking all measures to protect its sovereignty.” [30] Additionally, just this year, Assad has sent greetings on varied occasions, anniversaries of Korean leaders were marked, and there were efforts to enhance cooperation in the areas of media and the parliaments of each respective country.
In recent days, Syria seemed to be at the end of a period of war but imperialists don’t want that. With the U$ imperialists working to create more chaos there, there have been reports (also see here and here) that the Syrians have been willing to work with the imperialist-backed Kurds in Afrin to fight off Turkish aggression against them, although the Kurds deny this, not surprisingly. It seems this is evidently the case with the Syrian state media outlet, SANA declaring “Popular forces arrive in Afrin to support locals against the aggression waged by the Turkish regime on the city since January 20th” on Feb 20. It is a bit complicated because the Turks are one and with U$ imperialism, but so are the “good” Kurds, meaning that both sides are backed by such imperialism as ways of destabilizing the region. It is also worth pointing out that these Kurds are supported by the Russians, as are the Turks, adding a new dimension. With the strong U$ imperialist-backing of the Kurds, coupled with illegal presence of troops, strong tensions between the U$ and the Turks have developed. [31]
With all of this, as the imperialists (as do the Zionists) work to try to seize the resources of Syria and destabilize the country (even meeting with the “opposition“) the efforts of reconstruction in the country are going forward. For example, there is a government “plan to re-launch all stalled and halted private sector investment projects in all provinces, and to provide facilitations to encourage investors to activate these projects” which would undoubtedly benefit the state’s bourgeoisie. As the state of Syria participates in the 12th session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), the Russian ambassador at the UN “stressed that any decision on Syria should to be taken by the Syrian people themselves without any foreign intervention or dictates” with the Chinese echoing this, which is positive, but doesn’t exclude bourgeoisie from their countries, and elsewhere, shaping the situation for their benefit. The latter is definitely the case for Russia whose ambassador to Syria, Alexander Kinshchak, declared in its state media outlet, TASS, that fellow BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) should “establish a foothold in Syria’s promising market” since the “the country’s economy has suffered an enormous damage” due to the conflict in that country, saying they should work to help rebuild the country’s economy. He specifically said that “in particular, as a result of their deliberate strikes, dozens of vital fuel and energy infrastructure facilities in Syria’s north as well as bridges, roads, educational and medical institutions have been destroyed.”
In recent days there have been a number of developments. For one, Syrian militias favoring the government have joined the U$-backed Kurds to fight alongside them regardless of shelling by the Turkish aggressors, which violates UN Security Council resolution no. 2401, and there has been fighting in East Ghouta, with Syria heroically fighting against U$-backed terrorists. Resolution 2401 is a ceasefire resolution (for 30 days), which passed the UN Security Council unanimously but does not “apply to military operations against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as ISIL/Da’esh), Al Qaeda and Al Nusra Front.” Even with that, there are reports, even in conservative media, that U$ troops are staying in Iraq and Syria indefinitely, and that the Zionists are supporting more rebel factions in Syria.
Still, there is hope for a positive outcome with a Syrian Dialogue Congress, and efforts to talk with the “opposition.” This would stand against the “Takfiri terror” or Wahhabi terror” supported by the capitalist poles of power, terror which is not “Islamic.” Otherwise, the Indians have proposed to help with rebuilding the country and the Russian bourgeoisie want closer ties with Syria. As the years go on, the relationship between the DPRK and Syria will ever remain, becoming stronger and stronger.
Notes
[1] Ri Kyong Su, “Bonds of DPRK-Syria Friendship Developing in Common Struggle,” Rodong Sinmun, Jul 26, 2016; Rodong News Team, “Solidarity Meeting Held for Anniversary of Establishment of DPRK-Syria Diplomatic Ties,” Rodong Sinmun, Aug 10, 2016.
[2] Steve Mollman, “The war in Syria has been great for North Korea,” Quartz, Apr 19, 2017; From “North Korea and the World” project by the East-West Center and the National Committee on North Korea (NCNK); Jay Solomon, “North Korea’s Alliance with Syria Reveals a Wider Proliferation Threat,” Washington Institute of Near East Policy, Nov 2, 2017; Bruce E. Bechtol Jr, “North Korea and Syria: Partners in Destruction and Violence,” The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 3, Sept 2015. For this section, pages 277, 278, 279, 280, 284, 285, 287 of his bourgeois anti-communist article are used.
[3] “North Korea and the World” project by the East-West Center and the National Committee on North Korea (NCNK); Bruce E. Bechtol Jr, “North Korea and Syria: Partners in Destruction and Violence,” The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 3, Sept 2015; Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013; Franz-Stefan Gady, “Is North Korea Fighting for Assad in Syria?,” The Diplomat, Mar 24, 2016; Jay Solomon, “North Korea’s Alliance with Syria Reveals a Wider Proliferation Threat,” Washington Institute of Near East Policy, Nov 2, 2017.
[4] Isabella Ginor, Excerpt from “The Cold War’s Longest Cover Up: How and Why the USSR Instigated the 1967 War,” Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal Vol 7., No 3, Sept 2003, reprinted on a Zionist website; “Six Day War: impact on Jews in Arab Countries,” sixdaywar.co.uk, accessed Feb 25, 2018; Judy Maltz, “The Rise – and Rise – of French Jewry’s Immigration to Israel,” Haaretz, Jan 13, 2015; Daphna Berman, “The 40th Anniversary of the Six-Day War / Rate of Return,” Haaretz, Jun 1, 2007.
[5] A Spanish-speaking comrade named Fekerfanta, “Proletarian Nationalism of North Korea,” From Pyongyang to Havana, Aug 8, 2013.
[6] Bruce E. Bechtol Jr, “North Korea and Syria: Partners in Destruction and Violence,” The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 3, Sept 2015; Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013.
[7] Jay Solomon, “North Korea’s Alliance with Syria Reveals a Wider Proliferation Threat,” Washington Institute of Near East Policy, Nov 2, 2017; Franz-Stefan Gady, “Is North Korea Fighting for Assad in Syria?,” The Diplomat, Mar 24, 2016; “North Korea and the World” project by the East-West Center and the National Committee on North Korea (NCNK);Bruce E. Bechtol Jr, “North Korea and Syria: Partners in Destruction and Violence,” The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 3, Sept 2015; Geoffrey Cain, “Syria’s other ally: North Korea,” GlobalPost (reprinted in Salon), Sept 9, 2013; Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013.
[8] Jay Solomon, “North Korea’s Alliance with Syria Reveals a Wider Proliferation Threat,” Washington Institute of Near East Policy, Nov 2, 2017.
[9] Franz-Stefan Gady, “Is North Korea Fighting for Assad in Syria?,” The Diplomat, Mar 24, 2016; Bruce E. Bechtol Jr, “North Korea and Syria: Partners in Destruction and Violence,” The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 3, Sept 2015; Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013.
[10] Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013.
[11] Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013. In 2001, he writes, the government of the DPRK signed three long-term loan agreements with the Kuwaitis “to finance the development and modernization of basic infrastructure in North Korea.”
[12] Ibid.
[13]”Syria and North Korea: A Real Axis of Evil,” The National Interest, Sept 4, 2013; Bruce E. Bechtol Jr, “North Korea and Syria: Partners in Destruction and Violence,” The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 3, Sept 2015.
[14] Tak Kumakura, “North Koreans May Have Died in Israel Attack on Syria, NHK Says,” Bloomberg News, Apr 27, 2008; Samuel Ramani, “Why Did North Korea Just Threaten Israel?,” The Diplomat, May 3, 2017; North Korea’s Hamas Connection: “Below” the Surface?,” The National Interest, Sept 4, 2014; Israel used 17 tons of explosives to destroy Syrian reactor in 2007, magazine says,” Times of Israel, Sept 10, 2012; Jay Solomon, “North Korea’s Alliance with Syria Reveals a Wider Proliferation Threat,” Washington Institute of Near East Policy, Nov 2, 2017; “Syria and North Korea: A Real Axis of Evil,” The National Interest, Sept 4, 2013; Gregory L. Schulte, “North Korea and Syria: A Warning in the Desert,” YaleGlobal Online, Apr 28, 2010; Geoffrey Cain, “Syria’s other ally: North Korea,” GlobalPost (reprinted in Salon), Sept 9, 2013; Elizabeth Shim, “North Korea troops fighting in Syrian civil war, delegate says,” UPI, Mar 22, 2016; Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013; Gary Samore, and Bernard Gwertzman, “A Syria-North Korea Nuclear Relationship?,” Council of Foreign Relations, Sept 19, 2007; Steve Mollman, “The war in Syria has been great for North Korea,” Quartz, Apr 19, 2017.
[15] A Spanish-speaking comrade named Fekerfanta, “Proletarian Nationalism of North Korea,” From Pyongyang to Havana, Aug 8, 2013.
[16] “Syria and North Korea: A Real Axis of Evil,” The National Interest, Sept 4, 2013; Gregory L. Schulte, “North Korea and Syria: A Warning in the Desert,” YaleGlobal Online, Apr 28, 2010.
[17] North Korea: The Israeli Connection,” BreakingIsraelNews, accessed Feb 7, 2018; Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013. One article (Krishnadev Calamur, “Who Are Syria’s Friends And Why Are They Supporting Assad?,” Reuters, Aug 28, 2013) also says that “Moscow has long-standing strategic and financial interests in Syria…China and Syria have close trade links…Iran has few allies in the Arab world and its most important one is Syria.”
[18] A Spanish-speaking comrade named Fekerfanta, “Proletarian Nationalism of North Korea,” From Pyongyang to Havana, Aug 8, 2013; Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013; “Syria and North Korea: A Real Axis of Evil,” The National Interest, Sept 4, 2013; Julian Ryall, “Syria: North Korean military ‘advising Assad regime’,” The Telegraph, Jun 6, 2013; Jonathan Spyer, “Behind The Lines: Assad’s North Korean connection,” Jerusalem Post, Nov 2, 2013; Steve Mollman, “The war in Syria has been great for North Korea,” Quartz, Apr 19, 2017; Adam Taylor, “Are North Koreans fighting in Syria? It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds,” Washington Post, Mar 25, 2016; Bruce E. Bechtol Jr, “North Korea and Syria: Partners in Destruction and Violence,” The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Vol. 27, No. 3, Sept 2015; Geoffrey Cain, “Syria’s other ally: North Korea,” GlobalPost (reprinted in Salon), Sept 9, 2013; Alexandre Mansourov, “North Korea: Entering Syria’s Civil War,” 38 North, Nov 25, 2013.
[19] Steve Mollman, “The war in Syria has been great for North Korea,” Quartz, Apr 19, 2017.
[20] Elizabeth Shim, “North Korea troops fighting in Syrian civil war, delegate says,” UPI, Mar 22, 2016; Steve Mollman, “The war in Syria has been great for North Korea,” Quartz, Apr 19, 2017; “Syria names park in capital after N Korea founder,” Al Jazeera, Aug 31, 2015.
[21] Franz-Stefan Gady, “Is North Korea Fighting for Assad in Syria?,” The Diplomat, Mar 24, 2016; Elizabeth Shim, “North Korea troops fighting in Syrian civil war, delegate says,” UPI, Mar 22, 2016; Adam Taylor, “Are North Koreans fighting in Syria? It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds,” Washington Post, Mar 25, 2016.
[22] “Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Dec 16, 2016; “Greetings to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Oct 12, 2016; “Message of Sympathy to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Oct 6, 2016; “Reply to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Sept 14, 2016; “Greetings to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Sept 8, 2016; “Congratulations to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Jul 4, 2016; “Congratulations to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, May 13, 2016; “Greetings to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, May 8, 2016; “Reply Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 21, 2016; “Congratulations to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 13, 2016; “Reply Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Mar 10, 2016; “Kim Jong Un Receives Reply Message from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Feb 15, 2016; “Kim Jong Un Receives Message of Greeting from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Feb 15, 2016.
[23] “Kim Jong Un Sends Greetings to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Nov 18, 2016; “Kim Jong Un Sends Reply Messages to Foreign Party and State Leaders,” Rodong Sinmun, Nov 12, 2016 (he also sent messages to “the president of Laos…and the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization”); “Kim Jong Un Congratulates Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Sept 13, 2016; “Kim Jong Un Sends Message of Greeting to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Jul 21, 2016; “Kim Jong Un Sends Reply Message to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, May 27, 2016; “Kim Jong Un Sends Reply Message to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 23, 2016; “Kim Jong Un Congratulates Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 15, 2016; “Message of Condolence to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Feb 12, 2016.
[24] Tim O’Connor, “Syria’s Assad Sends Thanks to Iran, North Korea,” Newsweek (reprinted in Yahoo! News), Sept 15, 2017; Steve Mollman, “The war in Syria has been great for North Korea,” Quartz, Apr 19, 2017; Tom Phillips, “Syria strike designed to intimidate North Korea, Chinese state newspaper says,” The Guardian, Apr 10, 2017; Michelle Nichols, “North Korea shipments to Syria chemical arms agency intercepted: U.N. report,” Reuters, Aug 21, 2017; Jay Solomon, “North Korea’s Alliance with Syria Reveals a Wider Proliferation Threat,” Washington Institute of Near East Policy, Nov 2, 2017; “US missile strike on Syria ‘carries message for North Korea and China’: analysts,” DW, Aug 4, 2017; “Syria strike ‘vindicates’ North Korea’s nuclear choice,” BBC News, Apr 8, 2017; “N.K. highlights friendly ties with Syria amid chemical weapon attack row,” Yonhap News Agency, Apr 7, 2017.
[25] Chad O’Carroll, “A long way from Damascus: Life as Syria’s ambassador to North Korea,” NK News, Feb 1, 2017.
[26] “Spokesman for Korean Jurists Committee Hits out at U.S. Missile Attack on Syria,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 17, 2017; “U.S. Military Attack on Sovereign State Blasted,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 17, 2017; “U.S. Missile Attack on Syria Unpardonable: DPRK FM Spokesman,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 11, 2017.
[27] “Sojourn of Syrian Delegation in Pyongyang,” Rodong Sinmun, Aug 2, 2017; “Syrian Delegation Pays Homage to Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il,” Rodong Sinmun, Aug 1, 2017; “Syrian Delegation Here,” Rodong Sinmun, Jul 28, 2017; “Syrian Delegation Visits Mangyongdae,” Rodong Sinmun, May 10, 2017; “Kim Yong Nam Meets Syrian Delegation,” Rodong Sinmun, May 9, 2017; “Syrian Delegation Arrives,” Rodong Sinmun, May 6, 2017; “Syrian Embassy Officials Visit Korean Revolution Museum,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 21, 2017.
[28] “Reply Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Nov 22, 2017; “Congratulatory Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Oct 9, 2017; “Reply Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Sept 14, 2017; “Greetings to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Sept 8, 2017; “Reply Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 21, 2017; “Syrian President Greets Kim Jong Un on Day of Sun,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 12, 2017; “Congratulatory Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 12, 2017; “Reply Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 10, 2017; “Reply Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Mar 13, 2017.
[29] “Kim Jong Un Sends Reply Messages to Foreign Party and State Leaders,” Rodong Sinmun, Nov 11, 2017 (also sent greetings to Laotian party and Palestinians); “Kim Su Kil Meets Delegations of Various Political Parties,” Rodong Sinmun, Nov 10, 2017 (also this Kim met with the South African Communist Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)); “Kim Jong Un Sends Reply Messages to Foreign Party and State Leaders,” Rodong Sinmun, Oct 12, 2017 (messages were also sent to the “Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba…president of Nepal…the Lao president…the presidents of Maldives, [and] Bangladesh…the kings of Cambodia and Thailand; the president of Pakistan; the president of Palestine…the Emir of Qatar; the presidents of Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Indonesia, India, Belarus, Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Congo, DR Congo, Tunisia, Algeria, Eritrea, Egypt and Dominica; the former president of Angola; the co-chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il Foundation; the secretary general of the United Nations; and the director-general of the International Institute of the Juche Idea”); “Kim Jong Un Congratulates Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Sept 12, 2017; “Reply Message to Kim Jong Un from Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, May 9, 2017; “Kim Jong Un Sends Greetings to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 28, 2017; “Kim Jong Un Sends Greetings to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 18, 2017; “Kim Jong Un Sends Greetings to Regional Secretary of Baath Arab Socialist Party,” Rodong Sinmun, Apr 7, 2017; “Message of Sympathy to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Mar 5, 2017; “Kim Jong Un Sends Greetings to Syrian President,” Rodong Sinmun, Mar 10, 2017.
[30] Alex Lockie, “US just detailed its plan to kick Assad out of Syria by treating the country like North Korea,” Business Insider, Feb 8, 2018.
[80] Other articles attest to the Kurdish kidnapping tactics in northern Syria, illegal “permanent” presence of U$ troops in Syria (also see here, here, here, here, the bourgeois media’s double standards, and stories about the Zionist attack on Syria which involved the governments of Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen, along with Hezbollah, praising Syria’s actions (shooting down the Zionist warplane). Also there are statements of support for Syria by Iran (also see here), and Russia.
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