North Korea and Syria have a lot in common: both built on an ideology fusing nationalism and socialism, both ruled by a hereditary despotism which ensures the rule of only one family.

So it should come as no surprise that the countries have a history of friendship: Kim Il Sung and Hafez Al-Assad co-operated extensively on weapons and scientific exchanges, and Assad modelled much of his personality cult on that of North Korea.

And as Syria’s increasingly brutal and divisive civil war has escalated, NK Newscan reveal, North Korea has strengthened its ties with Syria, with an increase in