Imran Khalid
The Syrian civil warfare is commonly framed as a proxy battleground for international powers, however one actor’s position has attracted fewer headlines: North Korea. Pyongyang’s involvement within the Syrian warfare — from army help to weapons proliferation and covert alliances — reveals a strategic calculation primarily based on Chilly Struggle-era alliances and a refusal of Western-led sanctions.
The Assad regime’s collapse in late 2024 unraveled many years of secrets and techniques, exposing North Korea’s stage of entanglement in Syria and highlighting a dangerous symbiosis between the 2 international locations. North Korea initiated relations with Syria within the Nineteen Sixties when Pyongyang supplied army advisers and air protection programs to help in Syria’s wars with Israel. Their bilateral relations grew shortly underneath Bashar al-Assad, when North Korea helped Syria obtain nuclear functionality. A secret nuclear reactor close to Deir el-Zour constructed with Pyongyang’s technical experience and modeled after North Korea’s Yongbyon facility was destroyed by Israel in 2007. The reactor’s destruction, which reportedly killed North Korean scientists who had been on the web site, marked a turning level, forcing each regimes to pivot towards subtler types of collaboration.
North Korea started to be a lifeboat for Assad when the Syrian civil warfare began in 2011. Evading U.N. restrictions by means of entrance firms like Cheng Tong Buying and selling Co., Pyongyang supplied artillery, chemical weapon precursors and ballistic missile expertise. In keeping with a 2018 U.N. report, Syria’s Scientific Research and Analysis Middle (SSRC) obtained 40 unlawful shipments of thermometers, valves and acid-resistant tiles crucial for the manufacturing of chemical weapons. These transfers, masked as civilian initiatives, epitomized North Korea’s position as a “proliferation kleptocrat,” buying and selling deadly experience for laborious foreign money.
Other than provides, North Korea deeply embedded itself into the dynamics of Syria’s battle. North Korean army advisers and engineers had been helping Assad’s counterinsurgency operations. Syrian opposition organizations alleged in 2016 that North Korean particular forces divisions nicknamed „Chalma 1“ and „Chalma 7“ had been despatched to strengthen authorities offensives. Although Pyongyang rejected these accusations as „misinformation,“ their credibility is supported by historic knowledge: North Korea has a observe file of deploying “regime assist” forces to battle zones, from Angola to Zimbabwe.
This participation had two goals. North Korean consultants introduced a few years of uneven army expertise developed underneath sanctions and isolation to Syria. Syria additionally served as a testing floor for hybrid methods — cyber warfare, drone expertise and missile programs — that Pyongyang later included in its personal army doctrine. Moreover, the cooperation helped solidify relationships with Assad’s pals, Iran and Hezbollah, constructing a tripartite axis defiant of the U.S.
North Korea’s most alarming contribution lay in Syria’s chemical weapons program. Regardless of Syria’s 2013 accession to the Chemical Weapons Conference, proof mounted of continued chemical weapons use, facilitated by Pyongyang’s illicit transfers. Supposedly a civilian group, the SSRC managed chemical weapon manufacturing websites at Masyaf, Dummar and Barzeh — the latter usually frequented by North Korean technicians. These actions endured even when worldwide authorities linked Assad to atrocities such the 2017 Khan Sheikhoun gasoline assault utilizing the chemical weapon sarin.
North Korea had a job that encompassed greater than logistics. An Iranian defector, Gen. Ali Reza Askari, uncovered the SSRC’s cooperation with Pyongyang’s Korea Mining Improvement Buying and selling Company to develop nerve agent supply programs. This nexus underscored a grim actuality: the U.N. sanctions couldn’t weaken the Pyongyang-Damascus ties as each governments used third-party intermediaries and different loopholes to evade them. Nevertheless, North Korea took a strategic hit when the Assad authorities fell in December 2024. Pyongyang evacuated its embassy and lower off official relations as Syrian rebels took over Damascus, forsaking huge quantities of categorised data which may reveal years of cooperation on weapons of mass destruction. South Korea’s subsequent diplomatic overtures to Syria’s interim authorities have additional marginalized Pyongyang, eroding its final Center Jap foothold.
But, North Korea’s Syrian gambit reveals broader ambitions. By aligning with Assad, Pyongyang sought to place itself as a linchpin of “anti-Western” solidarity, alongside Iran and Russia. However, this plan may backfire now. North Korea’s diplomatic isolation is deepening as sanctions develop into sharper and Syria’s rebuilding shifts towards the West, which can compel it to intensify its dependence on Russia and China. North Korea’s position in Syria transcends mere opportunism; it displays a deliberate technique to undermine U.S.-led hegemony by means of uneven alliances. The Syrian battle turned a laboratory for Pyongyang’s proliferation networks, testing the boundaries of worldwide deterrence. But, the partnership’s unraveling post-2024 additionally highlights its fragility: authoritarian solidarity crumbles when regimes fall.
Because the U.S. and its allies grapple with North Korea’s nuclear brinkmanship, Syria serves as a cautionary story. Containing Pyongyang calls for not simply sanctions however dismantling the shadow economies that maintain its rogue statecraft. Till then, the world should reckon with the specter of a North Korea unshackled, its ambitions metastasizing just like the chemical brokers it helped proliferate in Syria. North Korea’s involvement within the Syrian warfare has had profound and far-reaching implications, contributing to the protraction of the battle and the struggling of the Syrian individuals. With the autumn of the Assad regime and the emergence of a transitional authorities led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the dynamics in Syria have shifted dramatically. The worldwide group now faces the advanced job of rebuilding a nation ravaged by years of warfare. On this new panorama, it’s essential to handle North Korea’s position within the battle and to stop its additional interference in Syria’s future.
Dr. Imran Khalid (immhza6@gmail.com) is a contract contributor primarily based in Karachi, Pakistan.
