What Kind of Country Is North Korea, the role model for Assad’s regime?

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria last December marked the end of the Middle East's final dictatorship, which had ruled the nation with an iron grip for over 50 years. This collapse dealt a significant blow to the North Korean regime and served as a stark lesson to be heeded.

The dictatorships of Syria and North Korea share several striking similarities. Foremost among these is their foundation on the long-term rule of a single leader. Hafez al-Assad, who came to power through a coup in 1970, ruled Syria for 30 years, followed by his son Bashar al-Assad, who held power for 23 years. Similarly, in North Korea, Kim Il-sung ruled for 49 years, from August 1945 until his death in July 1994, and was succeeded by Kim Jong-il, who governed for 17 years until December 2011.

The second similarity is their hereditary dictatorship. While it remains unclear whether former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad's 1974 visit to North Korea and meeting with Kim Il-sung influenced his decision, he clearly emulated the Kim family's hereditary dictatorship. Hafez designated his son as his successor and groomed him during his time in power. Following Hafez's death from a heart attack in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad assumed the presidency and ruled for 23 years. Similarly, in North Korea, Kim Il-sung was succeeded by Kim Jong-il and later by Kim Jong-un, continuing the family’s dynastic succession.

I came to Korea after serving as a North Korean diplomat in Cuba, a dictatorship closely aligned with and bearing many similarities to North Korea. A particularly memorable moment during my service was July 11, 2021, when Cuba experienced its largest anti-government protests since the revolutionary government came to power. With borders sealed and imports of food and oil blocked due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. blockade, Cuba faced its worst shortages of power, water, and food. Frustrated and desperate, the people rose up in protest across the country.

Cuba previously experienced its most severe food and power crisis amid the collapse of Eastern European socialism in the 1990s. In August 1994, an anti-government protest known as the "Maleconazo" erupted in Havana, but it was part of a broader history of unrest under Cuba's revolutionary government. The demands of the 1994 protesters were narrowly focused on seeking asylum in the U.S. In contrast, the 2021 anti-government protests took place simultaneously nationwide, with initial calls for electricity and food evolving into broader demands for freedom, human rights, and democracy. The July 11 protests in Cuba, a country with a system of social control similar to North Korea’s, sparked alarm in Pyongyang and were closely analyzed.

At the time, North Korea attributed the protests in Cuba to two main factors. The first was the failure of the Communist Party of Cuba, as the sole ruling party, to sufficiently indoctrinate and control the population. It is common knowledge that the North Korean Workers' Party plays a pivotal role in sustaining the dictatorship. It exerts absolute control over all aspects of society—politics, the economy, and the military—and rigorously monitors every single member of society. Through ruthless and brutal measures, such as public executions and collective punishment, it suppresses any potential dissent under its reign of terror. In Cuba, however, while the Communist Party serves as the "guiding force" of the revolution, it does not directly manage state administration. Surveillance and social control are limited to what is deemed necessary for national security, and extreme practices like public executions and collective punishment, reminiscent of slave societies, are not part of its methods.

The second factor is Cuba's embrace of the internet. North Korean citizens are deprived of even the most basic rights, with entire families sent to political prison camps for offenses as minor as watching unauthorized foreign movies or reading banned books—let alone accessing the internet. Any external information is regarded as "ideological and cultural infiltration" by the West, aimed at toppling the regime. As a result, North Koreans are restricted to consuming the propaganda disseminated by the Workers' Party. In contrast, Cuba allowed its population to access the internet over a decade ago, permitting citizens to express their opinions freely on social media. From this perspective, North Korea's dictatorship stands out as incomparably harsher and more inhumane than other authoritarian regimes throughout history.

Even amidst such oppressive conditions, change is emerging. Today’s North Koreans are no longer the compliant and subservient population they once were. A significant portion of the population believes the hereditary dictatorship has no future and recognizes the need for change. This sentiment is especially strong among North Korean youth, who remain eager and hopeful despite harsh controls and brutal punishments. They yearn for outside information and hold onto dreams of a better tomorrow.

What Kim Jong-un fears most is not a military attack by South Korea, the U.S. or Japan, but the changing mindset of his own people. History has shown in Germany, Romania, the Soviet Union, and other former Eastern Bloc countries, as well as in Libya, Syria, and other fallen dictatorships, that internal change is often the catalyst for collapse. North Korea’s greatest fear is that such change will arise from within. It is our responsibility to support the North Korean people in their struggle to escape the deeply oppressive system that treats them like slaves. By providing access to the outside information they so desperately seek, we can help instill in them the belief that dictatorships are not eternal and empower them with the realization that they hold the power to drive change.

The international community's demands for human rights and democratic reforms in North Korea must grow louder and resonate within the country. North Korean discontent must be fueled and amplified by exposing the inhumane actions of Kim Jong-un as he sends tens of thousands of young men to fight in Ukraine solely to consolidate his political power and secure the Kim family’s rule across four generations.

Just as dawn heralds the arrival of morning, a bright day will inevitably come for North Korea. We urge Kim Jong-un and those striving to prop up the dictatorship to embrace change alongside their people, lest they find themselves on the wrong side of history when the day of reckoning arrives.