Kim Jong Un sent state mercenaries to Syrian conflict for foreign cash

Russian news agency TASS has reported that two North Korean military units are fighting in Syria's civil war on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The units are reportedly called “Chalma-1” and “Chalma-2.” However, it is not known since when and how many North Korean troops have been involved in the Syrian conflict. There has been circumstantial evidence of the North’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, but it is the first time when the North Korean units’ names have been revealed.

In 2013, Western media reported that the North sent around 10 military officers, including military pilots, to Syria to help the Syrian government. Most of the tanks used in the Syrian conflicts are believed to be North Korean-made, suggesting that a cash-strapped Pyongyang is selling weapons and soldiers to Syria to earn dollars. There are concerns that failure to cut off foreign currency being funneled from Syria to the North could weaken sanctions, which the United Nations, South Korea, the United States, and Japan have imposed to stop Pyongyang from developing nuclear weapons.

North Korea exported its nuclear reactor and missile technologies to countries such as Syria and Iran in 2007 and 2010. Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney wrote in his memoir that in 2007, when the North conducted its first nuclear test, Israeli bombers struck a nuclear reactor that the North was building on a Syrian desert. If the North’s nuclear weapons end up in the hands of the Islamic State jihadist group, terrible terror attacks could take place.

Some 250,000 people have been killed and 11.3 million others have become refugees in the Syrian civil war, which has been continuing for more than five years. As the Syrian president is being ridiculed for defending just Damascus, it is hard to determine which of the North Korean and the Syrian regimes is in greater jeopardy. What is clear is that the two countries are continuing their alliance, which could spell disaster to each other. It is clear that Bashar al-Assad, who has been massacring innocent civilians in the civil war, and Kim Jong Un, who is helping the Syrian dictator, are aiding and abetting mass killings.

허문명논설위원 angelhuh@donga.com