North Korean Troops in Syria

[darin]

well holy shitballs.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/03/22/North-Korea-troops-fighting-in-Syrian-civil-war-delegate-says/1021458696828/


GENEVA, Switzerland, March 22 (UPI) -- Two North Korean military units are fighting on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syria conflict.

Asaad Al-Zoubi, the head of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee delegation, told Russian news agency TASS that North Koreans have committed troops to the civil war.

According to Al-Zoubi, the two units are called Chalma-1 and Chalma-2.

The Syrian delegate provided the information as he attended Syria peace talks at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva.

Al-Zoubi added there are fighters from Iran and Afghanistan fighting on behalf of Assad.

Russia's Sputnik International also confirmed the Syrian representative's statement on North Korean soldiers in the Middle East, and quoted Al-Zoubi as saying the "North Korean troops are fatally dangerous" during an explanation of the presence of foreign troops in the Syrian civil war.


I'm having trouble finding ANY online reference for those named units. Weird. They aren't in any Intel pubs I've found.

[NightTrain]

I've never heard of NK troops anywhere else.. doesn't surprise me that the fat little nutjob is a fan of Assad, though.

[sundaydriver]

There were stories a couple of years ago of N Korean pilots flying for Assad who has also pledged to support the l'il monster.

[Drummond]

Just another of those stories that the BBC wouldn't dream of making headline news ....

Is this definitely true, or someone's rumour ?

[darin]

MULTIPLE sources reporting this.

[namvet]

troops or maybe scientists ?? I remember years back the gookers were caught helping Assad build a nuke. the IDF caught wind of it an made a preemptive strike that killed em all

Israel destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, constructed with apparent help from North Korea, fearing it was built to make a bomb, according to the Jerusalem Post.
In a leaked diplomatic cable obtained by the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, then-US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice wrote the Israelis targeted and destroyed the Syrian nuclear reactor just weeks before it was to be operational.

source (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wikileaks-israel-destroyed-syrian-nuke-facility/)

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

troops or maybe scientists ?? I remember years back the gookers were caught helping Assad build a nuke. the IDF caught wind of it an made a preemptive strike that killed em all

Israel destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, constructed with apparent help from North Korea, fearing it was built to make a bomb, according to the Jerusalem Post.
In a leaked diplomatic cable obtained by the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, then-US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice wrote the Israelis targeted and destroyed the Syrian nuclear reactor just weeks before it was to be operational.

source (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wikileaks-israel-destroyed-syrian-nuke-facility/)

Very well could be special bodyguards for the scientists helping Assad with some kind of major weapon(nuke?)..
Our problem is the obama supports ISIS against Assad, which goes 100% against this nation's best interests. A fact..--Tyr

[namvet]

Very well could be special bodyguards for the scientists helping Assad with some kind of major weapon(nuke?)..
Our problem is the obama supports ISIS against Assad, which goes 100% against this nation's best interests. A fact..--Tyr

Israel and the IDF could care less what big ears thinks. he's a raghead and they know it !!!

[Drummond]

MULTIPLE sources reporting this.

Are multiple sources supporting a rumour, though ?

[Gunny]

I've never heard of NK troops anywhere else.. doesn't surprise me that the fat little nutjob is a fan of Assad, though.

I'm just going with the thread title. Are you kidding me? North Koreans can't even get out of North Korea. :laugh2:

[Black Diamond]

I'm just going with the thread title. Are you kidding me? North Koreans can't even get out of North Korea. :laugh2:

Why is kim allowing this? His armed forces will see outside North Korea :cool:

[Gunny]

Why is kim allowing this? His armed forces will see outside North Korea :cool:

Too easy. He'll just have them shot upon return.

[Black Diamond]

Too easy. He'll just have them shot upon return.

How stalinesque.

[Kathianne]

Here's a link to The Diplomat, they're citing Tass but give other examples:

http://thediplomat.com/2016/03/is-north-korea-fighting-for-assad-in-syria/


Is North Korea Fighting for Assad in Syria?Two North Korean militias are fighting for Bashar al-Assad the Syrian opposition claims.


By Franz-Stefan Gady (http://thediplomat.com/authors/franz-stefan-gady/)


March 24, 2016


Two North Korean militia units are fighting alongside Syrian government forces a representative of a Syrian opposition delegation claimed in Geneva this week, according (http://tass.ru/en/world/864368) to TASS.


Asaad al-Zoubi, a leading figure in the so-called High Negotiations Committee delegation, the Saudi-backed main opposition bloc, revealed the information amidst ongoing U.N.-sponsored peace talks on Syria in Geneva on Tuesday.


“Two North Korean units are there, which are Chalma-1 and Chalma-7,” al Zoubi said. According to the opposition, a former colonel in the Syrian Arab Army who now heads the Free Syrian Army in the south of the country, the North Korean fighters are “fatally dangerous.”


Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria, there have been repeated rumors of North Korean military involvement including the transfer of arms and the presence of military advisers in the country.


However, as of now, there is no hard evidence that North Korean troops are on the ground fighting alongside the pro-Assad forces or that Pyongyang is currently providing material support to the Syrian government.


Nevertheless, North Korean involvement is not impossible and there is a long history to Syrian-North Korean military cooperation as the U.S.-Korea Institute points (http://38north.org/2013/11/amansourov112513/) out in an analysis.


North Korea over the last decades repeatedly supplied Syria with military hardware including armored personnel carriers, anti-tank weapons, rifles, and heavy artillery.


In the 1970s and 80s, North Korea also helped upgrade hundreds of Soviet-made T-54 and T-55 tanks in service with the Syrian Arab Army (including upgrading the turrets and equipping the armored vehicles with North Korean-designed laser rangefinders).


North Korea also supplied Syria with an unknown number of MANPADS (man-portable air-defense system), which are still in use as a 2014 picture of an ISIS fighter confirms (http://www.nknews.org/2014/12/n-korean-upgraded-tanks-still-in-use-in-syrian-civil-war/).


In addition, North Korea sold Scud-C transporter-erector-launchers (TELs) and cluster warheads to Syria and allegedly also provided substantial technical assistance for Assad’s atomic and chemical weapons programs over the years.


North Korea has a history of boots on the ground in Syria. For example, Pyongyang sent 25 pilots to Syria during the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, 30 pilots during the 1973 Arab-Israeli (to both Syria and Egypt), and 40 pilots and 75 air force instructors in 1975 and 1976. The Korean pilots provided training and in some instances even flew combat missions against Israel.


During the 1980s, North Korea dispatched special operations forces to Syria to help train the conventional Syrian Arab Army and its allies in insurgency tactics. “In 1984-1986 and 1990, 50 and 30 North Korean military instructors were sent to Syria, respectively,” the U.S.-Korea Institute analysis elaborates.


North Korean soldiers allegedly also operated 122 millimeter truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers (the weapon systems were supplied by Pyongyang) during the 1982 Islamic uprising in the city of Hama. Up to 25,000 civilians were killed when Syrian government forces suppressed the uprising by indiscriminately shelling the city with artillery.


One of the key facilitators in the early stages of the civil purportedly was (https://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/with-kpa-assets-in-syria-and-rumors-of-moscow-trip-gen-kim-kyok-sik-remains-py-man-of-the-hour/) the late Chief of the Korea’s People’s Army Staff, General Kim Kyok Sik. Beginning in the 1970s, he served for over a decade as Pyongyang’s military attaché in Damascus.


Yet, have there been concrete examples of North Korean soldiers fighting in the ongoing civil war? There, the evidence is not conclusive.

...

[Gunny]

"We" as in our Coward in Chief has left the region up for grabs. Every wannabe is trying to muscle in. When we end up having to clean up the mess, it's just going to be worse.