North Korea and Syria discuss economic cooperation

By: Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein 

If this development actually goes somewhere (a similar meeting was held in 2014 without any significant results) it’d provide a terrific data point on the increasingly emerging global, sanctions-evading sphere of authoritarian states. Here’s what the Syrian state news agency wrote on a meeting between Syria’s Minister of Industry and North Korea’s chargé d’affaires in the country:

Minister Sabbagh underscored the importance of working to strengthen joint cooperation between Syria and the DPRK to upgrade bilateral relations in the industrial field to be up to the level of the political relations in order to achieve the common benefit of the two friendly countries and peoples.

The Minister stressed the need to activate the memos of understanding and industrial agreements concluded between the ministry and the Korean side, which were suspended due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

In turn, Chargé d’affaires, Kim Hey Ryong, stressed standing in the face of the imperialist sanctions imposed on both friendly countries and the need to confront them with their own resources to advance in the face of the imposed economic blockade.

Ryong expressed his country’s interest in the projects proposed by the Syrian Ministry of Industry for investment, particularly in the field of pharmaceutical industries, alternative energies and the aluminum industry.

During the meeting, it was agreed to form a joint technical committee to set the initial principles for the fields of joint industrial cooperation, follow-up and activate the memo of understanding signed between the two sides.

(Source: Manar Salameh/ Ruaa al-Jazaeri, “Syria, DPRK discuss ways to enhance industrial cooperation,” Sana, 3/8/2022.)