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Reuters

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he plans to visit North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, North Korean state media reported on Sunday, potentially the first meeting between Kim and another head of state in Pyongyang.
“I am going to visit the DPRK and meet HE Kim Jong-un,” Assad said on May 30, North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported, using the initials of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian president’s office.
Assad reportedly made the remarks as he received the credentials of North Korean Ambassador Mun Jong-nam.

Pyongyang and Damascus maintain good relations, and United Nations monitors have accused North Korea of cooperating with Syria on chemical weapons, a charge the North denies.
Both countries have faced international isolation, North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme, and Syria over its tactics during a bloody civil war.
Since the beginning of the year, however, North Korea’s Kim has launched a flurry of diplomatic meetings with leaders in China and South Korea, and is scheduled to hold a summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12.

Since taking power in 2011, Kim has not publicly met with another head of state in North Korea.
“The world welcomes the remarkable events in the Korean peninsula brought about recently by the outstanding political calibre and wise leadership of HE Kim Jong-un,” Assad said, according to KCNA. “I am sure that he will achieve the final victory and realise the reunification of Korea without fail.”
According to South Korea’s foreign ministry, North Korea established diplomatic relations with Syria in 1966, opening its embassy in Damascus. Syria opened its mission in Pyongyang in 1969.
Close military cooperation between the two countries began when North Korea sent some 530 troops including pilots, tank drivers and missile personnel to Syria during the Arab-Israeli war in October 1973.
“The Syrian government will as ever fully support all policies and measures of the DPRK leadership and invariably strengthen and develop the friendly ties with the DPRK,” Assad said, as quoted by KCNA.


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North Korea

Syria President Bashar al-Assad with visit Kim Jong-un, North Korea says

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Photo: EPA

FILE - This undated file photo distributed on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, at an undisclosed location. When U.s. President Donald Trump and Kim meet in Singapore in June 2018, they will have two very different agendas. Kim would love to keep his nukes. And Trump would love to take them all away, ASAP. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

TOPSHOT - Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad during their meeting in Sochi on May 17, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / Mikhail KLIMENTYEV

Secret UN report reveals how North Korea is helping Syria build chemical weapons and missiles

UN chemical weapons experts hold a plastic bag containing samples from the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighbourhood of Damascus on August 29, 2013. Photo: Reuters

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is seen as the newly developed intercontinental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15's test was successfully launched, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang November 30, 2017. REUTERS/KCNA ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THIS IMAGE. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS

A picture taken on February 1, 2018, shows members of the Civil defence removing the remnants of a rocket reportedly fired by regime forces on the outskirts of the rebel-held besieged Syrian town of Douma in the eastern Ghouta region. According to the Syrian observatory for human rights, rockets were fired on the outskirts of Douma, and three people suffered respiratory problems, with local inhabitants speaking to the Syrian observatory of a chemical attack. / AFP PHOTO / Hamza Al-Ajweh

Syrian children receive treatment for a suspected chemical attack at a makeshift clinic on the rebel-held village of al-Shifuniyah in the Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus late on February 25, 2018. A child died and at least 13 other people suffered breathing difficulties after a suspected chemical attack on the besieged Syrian rebel enclave, a medic and a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 civilians had suffered breathing difficulties after a regime warplane struck the village. / AFP PHOTO / HAMZA AL-AJWEH

Syrian children and adults receive treatment for a suspected chemical attack at a makeshift clinic on the rebel-held village of al-Shifuniyah in the Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus late on February 25, 2018. A child died and at least 13 other people suffered breathing difficulties after a suspected chemical attack on the besieged Syrian rebel enclave, a medic and a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 civilians had suffered breathing difficulties after a regime warplane struck the village. / AFP PHOTO / HAMZA AL-AJWEH

US sends message to North Korea with missile strike on Syria

By targeting the Middle Eastern nation while hosting Xi Jinping, Trump is signalling he’ll act alone if Beijing doesn’t rein in Pyongyang, analysts say

(170407) -- WASHINGTON D.C., April 7, 2017 (Xinhua) -- In this handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy, U.S. navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter fires a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017. A total of 59 Tomahawk Land Attack missiles were launched from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea at about 8:40 p.m. EDT on April 6 (4:40 a.m. on Friday in Syria), and Syrian aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, fuel points, air defense systems, and radars were targeted, according to a Pentagon statement. 
(Xinhua/U.S. Navy) (hy)

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un guides the Korean People's Army Tank Crews' Competition 2017 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on April 1, 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THIS IMAGE. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO THIRD PARTY SALES. NOT FOR USE BY REUTERS THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTORS.Ê TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with their wives, first lady Melania Trump and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan are seated at the center, during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Thursday, April 6, 2017, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. President Donald Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., April 6, 2017. Photo: Xinhua

News

Asia

Diplomacy

Pyongyang and Damascus maintain good relations, and United Nations monitors have accused North Korea of cooperating with Syria on chemical weapons, a charge the North denies


Kim Jong-un