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)