(By Mohanad Hage Ali | Al Arabiya News)- A North Korean delegation met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to improve relations recently, just days before the presidential elections. Assad stressed that the relations between the two countries “stem from the common destiny of their peoples.” The Official North Korean and Syrian news agencies, KCNA and SANA respectively, signed a cooperation agreement; both sides pledged “quality control” to match each other’s professional standards.
Finding time
The Syrian regime, while fighting a fierce war in different parts of the country, has found time to celebrate the birthdays of North Korea’s two former presidents. KCNA reported on February 1 from Pyongyang that “a Syrian preparatory committee for celebrating the birth anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il (the Day of the Shining Star) was formed on January 23. The director of the Higher Education Department of the Regional Leadership of the Syrian Baath Arab Socialist Party was elected chairman of the preparatory committee. The committee decided to organize colorful political and cultural events for praising the revolutionary career and exploits of Kim Jong Il on the occasion of the Day of the Shining Star.
Nearly a month later, while Aleppo’s barrel bomb war was going on, the Syria-based Palestinian Yarmouk Camp was starving while the Syrian regime prepared for the birth of Kin Il Sung, dubbed as “the day of the Sun.”
Portrait of Hafez al-Assad, October War Panorama, Damascus, Syria As painted by the North Korean artists who worked on the building.
According to KCNA, “a Syrian preparatory committee for marking
the birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung (Day of the Sun) was
formed on March 16. The director of the Higher Education Department of
the Regional Leadership of the Syria’s Baath Arab Socialist Party was
elected chairman of the committee. It decided to arrange diverse
political and cultural events to celebrate the Day of the Sun.”
The agency went as far as quoting a senior Syrian academic as saying
that Kim Yong Un is “the greatest man in the world.” “World public is
highly praising the greatness of supreme leader Kim Jong Un. The
department’s head of the Political Faculty of the University of Damascus
of Syria said that Kim Jong Un is identical to President Kim Il Sung
and leader Kim Jong Il in looks, traits and leadership. He went on: The
world progressive people are praising Kim Jong Un for invariably
glorifying the DPRK as an invincible socialist power, true to the cause
of preceding leaders. World media are highly lauding Kim Jong Un as the
most famous and greatest man in the world though it is not long ago that
he started leading the DPRK.”
Syrian media
The Syrian regime’s media reported
no less adulation and affection, showering the North Korean leadership
with praise, and reporting on the official visits and solidarity. In an
April 14 front page editorial, the official Al- Thawra newspaper wrote
that “leader Kim Jung Un is the great human being who bears the
intellect, leadership qualities and ethical traits of both leaders, Kim
Il Sung, and Kim Yong Il. He also has the ultimate love and respect of
his people. The Korean people will continue to pursue the cause of
Socialism till the end, generation after generation, under the wise
leadership of Kim Yong Un.”
The two autocratic states share a
lot in common, they are both hereditary Socialist Republics with a
ruthless Security apparatus. Also, the North Korean leader, Kim Yong
Un, who like Assad inherited the presidency from his father after
studying in Europe, recently demonstrated his commitment to his father’s
ruthless legacy by reportedly executing his uncle. Among the reasons
cited by the KCNA, the official North Korean agency, he “turned down the
unanimous request of the service personnel of a unit of the Korean
People’s Internal Security Forces to have the autograph letter sent by
Kim Jong Un to the unit carved on a natural granite and erected with
good care in front of the building of its command. He was so reckless as
to instruct the unit to erect it in a shaded corner.”
Similarities
The many similarities between the countries, experts say, is not a coincidence. Lisa Wedeen wrote in her renowned book on Syria, “Ambiguities of Domination,” that Hafez Assad, the former Syrian president and father of the incumbent, “visited North Korea in September 1974 and may have been inspired by the cult there.”
Wedeen’s 1999 contention that the official language and symbols seek to prematurely kill politics, and “depoliticize people by orchestrating public performances” in return for their safety, appear to be outdated habits in a war in which he is widely mocked on the opposition’s side, according to activists.The recent upsurge in the relations between the two countries may as well be a manifestation of their ruthless nature, Malek Abu Khair, an activist and former political prisoner believes. “They both share the same utter indifference to their peoples’ suffering.”
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