By Ryu Hyeon Woo,
(Former Charge d’Affaires of the North Korean Embassy in Kuwait)
On December 8, 2024, the long and brutal Syrian civil war finally came to an end. What began in March 2011 with defiant graffiti by young students in the southern town of Daraa drew to a close 13 years later. In the early hours of December 8, rebel forces seized Damascus, forcing Bashar al-Assad to flee to Moscow aboard a Russian aircraft. Across the nation, Syrians who had long endured oppression poured into the streets, stomping on portraits of Assad and shouting, “Long live Syria!” A wave of euphoria swept across the nation as the Assad family’s 54-year-old hereditary dictatorship crumbled before its people’s eyes.
Yet amid the celebrations, Syrians also mourned the staggering human cost of the oppressive Assad regime. Over 600,000 lives were lost, and 15 million people were displaced during the 13-year conflict.
Rebels broke down the doors of Sednaya Prison, a place synonymous with torture and mass executions, and released its prisoners. Many of them, bearing visible scars of torture, were so frail they had to be physically supported by the rebels as they stumbled out. One haunting image that broke everyone’s heart was of a prisoner shielding his eyes from the sunlight—blinded by a brightness he hadn’t seen in 42 years of captivity. Among the freed were a three-year-old child and a Jordanian national who had been missing for 38 years. Testimonies reveal that many inmates were so traumatized by torture they could not recall their own names, while others were left mentally incapacitated. And this describes the conditions in the above-ground area, which were more tolerable than the alternative. Beneath the prison lay a previously unknown complex spanning three underground floors. Rooms were filled with hanging ropes, discarded prisoner clothing and shoes, and an unidentified hydraulic press. Acid-stained remains suggested the horrific disposal of bodies, while a morgue overflowed with corpses discarded due to the time constraints. Their only crime had been their dissent against the dictator. While the survivors’ torture-marked bodies tell a horrifying story, they are the fortunate ones as they survived. Nearly 100,000 others were executed and buried in secret.
The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) estimates that 157,000 people went missing in Syria during the civil war, victims of illegal detention and abduction. Emerging testimonies reveal that the Assad regime’s secret police tortured and killed many of these individuals before burying them in mass graves, which are now being uncovered across various locations. On December 17, 2024 Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. Ambassador for War Crimes, visited mass graves in al-Qutayfah and Najha near Damascus. He told Reuters, “This is the first time I have seen such a horrific massacre since the Nazi era. I can’t believe this happened in the 21st century.” The Assad regime’s crimes extend beyond mass executions. Bashar al-Assad has earned the grim title of “vampire” for deploying chemical weapons, including chlorine and sarin gas, against his own people, causing tens of thousands to suffer and die.
Behind the reign of terror of the “human butcher” Assad lies the unwavering support of North Korea. Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1966, Syria and North Korea have maintained a disturbingly close alliance. During the 1967 Six-Day War (the Third Arab-Israeli War), 30 North Korean Air Force pilots not only trained their Syrian counterparts but also participated in air raids, flying Soviet-made MiG-21s. North Korea further bolstered Syria during the October War of 1973 (the Fourth Arab-Israeli War). To this day, the graves of three North Korean pilots can be found at the Martyrs’ Cemetery in Najha, on the outskirts of Damascus. The bond between the two regimes deepened following Hafez al-Assad’s visit to Pyongyang in late September 1974, where he and Kim Il-sung agreed to cooperate across all sectors, including the military. Kim Il-sung, the infamous dictator of North Korea, established a cult of personality and consolidated his grip on power, ruling the country from 1945 until his death in July 1994. Since the 1970s, North Korea has sent military advisors to Syria, including air force pilots, tank units, and special forces officers. Additionally, it has supplied Syria with a significant arsenal of conventional weapons, including tanks, rifles, cannons, and multiple rocket launchers.
In the 1990s, North Korea constructed two missile assembly facilities in Syria, where 30–50 Scud missiles have been produced annually. In October and November 2009, shipments from North Korea bound for Latakia, Syria, were intercepted, revealing over 14,000 chemical and biological protective suits. That same November, reagents for the production of chemical weapons were seized from a Liberian-flagged vessel en route from North Korea to Syria. The Assad regime has faced intense international condemnation for its use of chemical weapons in combat. One prominent example was the sarin gas attack on a rebel-held area near Damascus in August 2013, which claimed the lives of 1,429 residents. Bruce Bechtol Jr., a professor at Angelo State University, stated, “North Korea provided ’cradle-to-grave’ support for Syria’s chemical weapons program. They supplied weapons and components, constructed production facilities, and even offered ‘after-sales services’ by sending advisors to deliver technical training and operational support.”
Ultimately, North Korea, as a key supporter of the Assad regime, cannot evade responsibility for its role as an accomplice in the massacre of the Syrian people. The Kim regime, notorious for violating freedom and human rights and trampling on justice, is no different from the Assad family—the enemy of the Syrian people. The collapse of the Assad family serves as a stark warning to the Kim family in North Korea: “A government that turns its back on its people cannot last forever.” History has repeatedly demonstrated this truth, as leaders like Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya were ultimately toppled at the hands of rebels. Protecting the lives and rights of citizens is a fundamental legal and moral obligation of every government. The Syrian transitional government must ensure that Bashar al-Assad is held accountable at the International Criminal Court and pursue legal action against North Korea for its complicity in these crimes. It must also demonstrate to the Syrian people that Assad’s atrocities will not go unpunished and that the search for justice remains strong and unwavering.(The End)

(The Asan Institute for Policy Studies)
The hereditary dictatorial regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria collapsed so quickly and dramatically in December 2024. The Syria’s opposition forces took Damascus with little resistance from the seemingly solid regime while Assad and the ruling elites abruptly fled the country giving up all the power and possessions. It was not a total surprise as we had already witnessed sudden collapse of dictatorships during the Arab Spring in 2011. Under a system of oppression and fear, where public opinion is distorted and corruption runs rampant, dictatorial regimes inevitably fall-often unexpectedly. What truly surprised is was the revelation of the unthinkable degree of the human rights violation committed by the Assad regime including the existence of secret regime prisons and mass graves.
Not only the Assad regime but also the Kim regime in North Korea are the world’s worst human rights offenders. The two regimes share remarkable similarities in terms of hereditary power structure, core constituency consisting of only a tiny minority of the overall population, regime ideologies that blend socialism with ethnic nationalism, the possession of weapons of mass destruction(WMD), and important allies of Russia, China, and Iran which have shielded their human rights records from international scrutiny. Syria’s father dictator and North Korea’s grandfather dictator were also very close actively supporting each other in purging their people and consolidating their brutal power.
But the Kim regime is a more effective, constant violator of human rights than Assad regime. The former seeks total mass subjugation in a systematic way whereas the latter focuses elite protection through a range of loose institutions under the scattered chains of command. Given the UN Commission of Inquiry Reports, the regime of North Korea commits all ten counts of the Rome Statue’s crimes against humanity including extermination and enslavement, but the Syrian regime is charged on six counts.
Nonetheless, an ironic disparity exists as the international community pays less attention to human rights violation in North Korea than in Syria. This may be due to North Korea’s extreme isolation and strict control over information about its domestic human rights situation. Additionally, the issue of human rights in North Korea is often overshadowed by concerns about nuclear proliferation. The international community must increase pressure on the Kim regime responsible for crimes against the North Korean people’s humanity.(The End)

Lee Il-gyu, Former Counselor of the DPRK Embassy in Cuba

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria last December marked the end of the Middle East’s final dictatorship, which had ruled the nation with an iron grip for over 50 years. This collapse dealt a significant blow to the North Korean regime and served as a stark lesson to be heeded.

The dictatorships of Syria and North Korea share several striking similarities. Foremost among these is their foundation on the long-term rule of a single leader. Hafez al-Assad, who came to power through a coup in 1970, ruled Syria for 30 years, followed by his son Bashar al-Assad, who held power for 23 years. Similarly, in North Korea, Kim Il-sung ruled for 49 years, from August 1945 until his death in July 1994, and was succeeded by Kim Jong-il, who governed for 17 years until December 2011.

The second similarity is their hereditary dictatorship. While it remains unclear whether former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad’s 1974 visit to North Korea and meeting with Kim Il-sung influenced his decision, he clearly emulated the Kim family’s hereditary dictatorship. Hafez designated his son as his successor and groomed him during his time in power. Following Hafez’s death from a heart attack in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad assumed the presidency and ruled for 23 years. Similarly, in North Korea, Kim Il-sung was succeeded by Kim Jong-il and later by Kim Jong-un, continuing the family’s dynastic succession.

I came to Korea after serving as a North Korean diplomat in Cuba, a dictatorship closely aligned with and bearing many similarities to North Korea. A particularly memorable moment during my service was July 11, 2021, when Cuba experienced its largest anti-government protests since the revolutionary government came to power. With borders sealed and imports of food and oil blocked due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. blockade, Cuba faced its worst shortages of power, water, and food. Frustrated and desperate, the people rose up in protest across the country.

Cuba previously experienced its most severe food and power crisis amid the collapse of Eastern European socialism in the 1990s. In August 1994, an anti-government protest known as the “Maleconazo” erupted in Havana, but it was part of a broader history of unrest under Cuba’s revolutionary government. The demands of the 1994 protesters were narrowly focused on seeking asylum in the U.S. In contrast, the 2021 anti-government protests took place simultaneously nationwide, with initial calls for electricity and food evolving into broader demands for freedom, human rights, and democracy. The July 11 protests in Cuba, a country with a system of social control similar to North Korea’s, sparked alarm in Pyongyang and were closely analyzed.

At the time, North Korea attributed the protests in Cuba to two main factors. The first was the failure of the Communist Party of Cuba, as the sole ruling party, to sufficiently indoctrinate and control the population. It is common knowledge that the North Korean Workers’ Party plays a pivotal role in sustaining the dictatorship. It exerts absolute control over all aspects of society—politics, the economy, and the military—and rigorously monitors every single member of society. Through ruthless and brutal measures, such as public executions and collective punishment, it suppresses any potential dissent under its reign of terror. In Cuba, however, while the Communist Party serves as the “guiding force” of the revolution, it does not directly manage state administration. Surveillance and social control are limited to what is deemed necessary for national security, and extreme practices like public executions and collective punishment, reminiscent of slave societies, are not part of its methods.

The second factor is Cuba’s embrace of the internet. North Korean citizens are deprived of even the most basic rights, with entire families sent to political prison camps for offenses as minor as watching unauthorized foreign movies or reading banned books—let alone accessing the internet. Any external information is regarded as “ideological and cultural infiltration” by the West, aimed at toppling the regime. As a result, North Koreans are restricted to consuming the propaganda disseminated by the Workers’ Party. In contrast, Cuba allowed its population to access the internet over a decade ago, permitting citizens to express their opinions freely on social media. From this perspective, North Korea’s dictatorship stands out as incomparably harsher and more inhumane than other authoritarian regimes throughout history.

Even amidst such oppressive conditions, change is emerging. Today’s North Koreans are no longer the compliant and subservient population they once were. A significant portion of the population believes the hereditary dictatorship has no future and recognizes the need for change. This sentiment is especially strong among North Korean youth, who remain eager and hopeful despite harsh controls and brutal punishments. They yearn for outside information and hold onto dreams of a better tomorrow. 

What Kim Jong-un fears most is not a military attack by South Korea, the U.S. or Japan, but the changing mindset of his own people. History has shown in Germany, Romania, the Soviet Union, and other former Eastern Bloc countries, as well as in Libya, Syria, and other fallen dictatorships, that internal change is often the catalyst for collapse. North Korea’s greatest fear is that such change will arise from within. It is our responsibility to support the North Korean people in their struggle to escape the deeply oppressive system that treats them like slaves. By providing access to the outside information they so desperately seek, we can help instill in them the belief that dictatorships are not eternal and empower them with the realization that they hold the power to drive change. 

The international community’s demands for human rights and democratic reforms in North Korea must grow louder and resonate within the country. North Korean discontent must be fueled and amplified by exposing the inhumane actions of Kim Jong-un as he sends tens of thousands of young men to fight in Ukraine solely to consolidate his political power and secure the Kim family’s rule across four generations.

Just as dawn heralds the arrival of morning, a bright day will inevitably come for North Korea. We urge Kim Jong-un and those striving to prop up the dictatorship to embrace change alongside their people, lest they find themselves on the wrong side of history when the day of reckoning arrives.(The End)