The ousting of Syrian President Bashar Assad has deprived North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of one of his few close allies, a fellow pariah on the international stage and one of his most frequent pen pals in recent years.

But while the two countries have shared close diplomatic ties for decades, cooperation in recent years has been limited, and the relationship was never indispensable to Pyongyang, calling into question whether Assad’s fall will hurt North Korea’s position in the Middle East and overall foreign policy strategy.

Still, the rebel victory in Syria