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Russian media reports N. Korean troops fight on Syrian government’s side

Russian media reports N. Korean troops fight on Syrian government’s side

Posted March. 24, 2016 07:31,   

Updated March. 24, 2016 07:36

한국어

Two North Korean military units are fighting in Syria's civil war on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russian news agency TASS reported on Tuesday. There have been claims that North Korea is helping the Syrian government since the Syrian conflict began in April 2011. It was the first time that the North’s troop commitment to the civil war was reported.

According to TASS, Asaad az-Zoubi, the head of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee delegation, said the two North Korean units are named Chalma-1 and Chalma-2. He made the claim as he attended Syria peace talks brokered by the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Sputnik, another Russian news agency, also quoted Zoubi as saying that the North Korean units were “lethally dangerous.”

If the claim is true, Pyongyang will likely come under international criticism for providing military assistance for the Syrian government, which has been trampling on human rights by using chemical weapons even on civilians, let alone the opposition forces, in order to maintain the dictatorship. Some speculate that considering the North had never sent ground troops to overseas conflicts, Pyongyang could have “exported mercenaries” to earn much needed dollars. During the Vietnam War, North Korea sent only pilots and logistics troops to North Vietnam. The North also dispatched special forces instructors to various countries in Africa but avoided direct involvement in armed conflicts.

The exact size of the North Korean troops in the Syrian conflict has yet to be confirmed. “If North Korean special forces troops have really been sent, the size would not be big, with about 10 troops in one unit,” a South Korean government official said. “We are currently trying to gather detailed information.”

When Amud Horan, a rebel unit active in Daraa in southern Syria, unveiled four captured government militia troops on YouTube in April 2015, it claimed that one of them was “Korean.” The man looked like a typical Korean in his mid or late 20s. The young man was believed to be a North Korean soldier but soon forgot after the rebel unit executed him after the video was shot.



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