A Continuing North Korea-Syria Connection? A Post-Summit Consideration

 

As U.S. President Donald Trump was wrapping up his historic summit with North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un with denuclearization a key topic on their agenda, my thoughts were on another meeting to be hosted by Kim Jong Un - that with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.  Though no date for the Pyongyang meeting has been decided, the timing of the announcement of this is intriguing, even suspicious.  North Korea and Syria share a decades-long history of military collaboration and technology transfers.  While North Korea has halted testing of nuclear weapons and missiles in advance of the Trump-Kim summit, the country continues to enrich uranium and remains a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction. 

On Tuesday afternoon, June 12, 2018, I was eager to interview The Honorable Frederic C. Hof, former United Stated Special Advisor on transition in Syria on a host of developments in the Middle East.  We met at Bard College's Globalization and International Affairs Program in New York City where Ambassador Hof is teaching a seminar, Ten Principles for Effective Diplomacy.  I immediately posited my concern that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula might bring with it the transfer of nuclear material and paraphernalia to a receptive Syria.  His response:

 

 

 

Ambassador Hof, an authority on Arab and Middle East affairs, and I continued to discuss trends that are defining a new Middle East.  The interview will be posting in the upcoming weeks. 

  







Lisa Bernard is the President of SecuritySpeak, LLC, a consulting firm and speakers bureau devoted to matters of national, cyber and international security.  Experts in these areas offer reports, briefings, talks and distinguished lectures to audiences of all types working to bring understanding of security matters to people in all walks of life.  To host a speaker or arrange for a consultation call (203) 293-4741 or email LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net.  See more of their work at  www.SecuritySpeak.net and at  www.Facebook.com/PodiumTime.