Is Kim Jong-un’s Decision To Meet Syrian Leader Bashar Al-Assad Intended to Provoke U.S?

Syrian President Bashar-al Assad is set to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, the North's state media reported on Sunday. According to a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) citing CNN, Assad will visit North Korea to meet Kim.

The KCNA report, however, did not mention the time and date of the meeting between the two leaders. Reportedly, days before Kim is scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump for the June 12 summit at Singapore, the former was making plans to meet Assad.

If the meeting takes place in Pyongyang, it would be the first time that a head of state has visited Kim in North Korea after he took charge of the country.

The news of Assad’s proposed visit comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity for North Korea following a thaw in relations with its southern neighbour at this year’s Winter Olympics. Since then, Kim has met South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in twice, has met U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo twice, has travelled to China to meet President Xi Jinping, again twice, received India's Minister of State for External Affairs General V.K. Singh and most recently hosted Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

As per the KCNA report, Assad received the diplomatic credentials of North Korea's Syrian ambassador, Mun Jong-nam after which the news of the possible meet broke out. The Syrian president was quoted by the report as saying, "The world welcomes the remarkable events in the Korean peninsula brought about recently by the outstanding political calibre and wise leadership of HE (His Excellency) Kim Jong Un." "I am sure that he (Kim) will achieve the final victory and realise the reunification of Korea without fail," it added.

The KCNA report further described the "close ties" between the two countries and quoted Assad as saying that Syria would "fully support all policies and measures" of the North Korean government.

It is to be noted that Assad's father and former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad had met Kim's grandfather and the founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang in the 1970s.

In 2015, Syria named a park in Damascus in honour of Kim Il Sung. During the inauguration of the park, Syrian deputy foreign minister Faisal Mikdad called the late North Korean leader "a historic ruler and leader, famous for his struggle to liberate and build his country."

Kim’s decision to host Bashar Al-Assad, who has been condemned by the world for his brutal crackdown of protesters in Syria as well as for using chemical weapons against civilians is bound to raise eyebrows in the U.S. as Washington is scrambling to finalise details for the June 12 meet between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.

The U.S. has in the past six months carried out multiple air strikes against Syrian weapons infrastructure in retaliation for its alleged bombing of civilian enclaves with chemical compounds. Donald Trump has also referred to Assad as an ‘animal’ after news broke of the Syrian government's bombings of the Syrian enclave of Ghouta.  Syria's civil war has claimed at least 5,00,000 lives and displaced 12 million people i.e. 50 percent of the country's population. This begs the question, is Kim’s scheduled meet with Assad another provocation to test the U.S. resolve? (With Agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 04, 2018 05:30 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).