The fall of Damascus to rebel forces and Syrian President Bashar Assad’s flight to Moscow raises the prospects of uncovering new details about North Korea’s longstanding weapons collaboration with the Middle Eastern state.

The DPRK arms industry benefitted well from Syria’s 13-year civil war: Pyongyang supported the Syrian government with a range of conventional weapons needs, and Damascus has been a resilient customer in return.

However, it was the support provided by the DPRK to Syria’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program over recent decades that placed this partnership in a