Asian Editors Circle

North Korea and Syria: States in crisis

Mr Kim Jong Un (left) and Mr Bashar al-Assad are political twins, says the writer. They identify themselves with their own state and therefore are willing to die with their state. PHOTOS: REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

North Korea and Syria are two powder kegs in the world at the moment. By comparing these two states we may be able to find solutions to the two crises.

The North Korean crisis is directly related to the division of Korea into two separated states by the Allied Powers in World War II in 1945, whereas the Syrian crisis was touched off by a domestic democratic movement influenced by the Arab Spring in 2011.

The main cause of the North Korean crisis is the North Korean regime's complete distrust and antagonism towards South Korea and the United States. Since the US and China are allied with South Korea and North Korea respectively, they are deeply involved in the inter-Korean conflict.

In the Syrian case, the democratic movement turned into an inveterate antagonism between the Alawites (a Shi'ite sect) and the Sunnis. Since the Assad regime is supported by the Alawites, the democratic movement turned into a sectarian war between the Shi'ites and the Sunnis within the country and in the Arab world - the former supported by Iran, the leading Shi'ite state, and the latter by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni neighbours.

Antagonism between the US and Russia is also pulled into this domestic conflict in which the US supports the pro-Western rebel forces and Russia directly supports the Assad regime. Russia wants to keep Syria as its foothold in the Middle East.

In contrast, the US is interested not so much in supporting the democratic forces as in preventing the Islamic extremist groups, particularly the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group, from taking over Syria and spreading their influence to other parts of the world.

There is a similarity between the Syrian and the Korean situations in this sense. The only difference is that in the case of the Korean Peninsula, the US and China are the main external competitors, whereas in the Syrian case the main non-Arab competitors are the US and Russia.

Mr Kim Jong Un and Mr Bashar al-Assad share a similar view of the outside world. Mr Assad once said that "the conflict in Syria is due to enemies outside of Syria and they would be taught a lesson". Mr Kim will completely agree with this view. Both look for a scapegoat for their internal difficulties.

Mr Kim Jong Un (left) and Mr Bashar al-Assad are political twins, says the writer. They identify themselves with their own state and therefore are willing to die with their state. PHOTOS: REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

The North Korean delegation told Mr Assad in 2015 that North Korea and Syria are targeted because they are among those which enjoy "real independence". Real independence implicitly refers to WMDs (nuclear and biological weapons). It should be noted that North Korea has once aided Syria for the latter's development of nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea and Syria are also similar politically: Both are ruled by a totalitarian dictatorship. Mr Kim and Mr Assad are political twins: They will never abandon their absolute political power in any circumstances. They identify themselves with their own state, and therefore they are willing to die with their own state.

However, it is much easier for Mr Kim than Mr Assad to indoctrinate his people because Koreans are secular and homogeneous but Syrians are divided into different religious and sectarian groups which seek autonomy.

The North Korean regime is strongly and tightly armed with one single ideology and spiritual determination. They are "juche" (self-reliance) ideology and the partisan spirit. Juche ideology stands for the independent spirit in all aspects of the state - political, economic and socio-cultural. This ideology also justifies North Korea's independent nuclear power. The most important codes of conduct of the partisan spirit are the will to persevere despite unbearable odds and commitment to solidarity.

Ba'athism can be the comparable Syrian ideology but is much weaker and run out than juche ideology.

Moreover, Mr Kim is supported by a ruling group composed of dedicated former anti-Japanese guerillas' descendants and other highly indoctrinated communist party leaders and their families. Meanwhile, Mr Assad is protected by the intelligence agency, the high-level military and secret police elites as well as various Alawite and Shi'ite groups but their loyalty has been weakening.

These indicate that the North Korean leadership is more consolidated and secure than the Syrian leadership, and therefore it is more dangerous and risky to eliminate Mr Kim than Mr Assad by force or subversion.

Both Mr Kim and Mr Assad reject Western civilisation and rule of law, but support strongly the main principle of the Westphalian state system (national sovereignty and principle of non-intervention). They also reject Western democracy and American hegemony. Most leaders of the non-West support their position.

Ironically, most Western leaders are reticent about the two crises.

Perhaps they are either too preoccupied with their own problems or feel guilty about the application of Western standards of the nation state to non-Western states. They, particularly the leading Western states, adopted the principle of self-determination at the League of Nations and the United Nations according to the Westphalian state model.

It is ironic that the Korean people, who had enjoyed a single nationhood for almost 13 centuries, live in two divided states, while the Syrian people, who have lived as one nation only since 1941, are still fighting for nationhood. Most failed states are the former Western colonies which became independent states after World War II according to the Western concept of national self-determination. Syria is one of them.

If a state fails to guarantee seven kinds of human security (economic, food, environmental, personal, community, political and health security defined by the UN Human Development Report), it is no longer a state, because they are the raison d'etre of the state.

North Korea and Syria have failed to meet all these standards. It is no surprise that North Korea strongly supports the Assad regime and opposes humanitarian intervention. Other non-Western states, including China and Nigeria, also support the Assad regime. They reject Western values and norms, Western democracy and American hegemony.

How to resolve the two crises is a common task of the Western powers which created Syria and the two Koreas.


  • The writer is a columnist for The Korea Herald. A former career diplomat, he served as rector of the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies at Kyung Hee University in Seoul and is the author of Globalised Korea and Localised Globe. This is a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors and columnists from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers and websites across the region.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 24, 2017, with the headline North Korea and Syria: States in crisis. Subscribe