SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea on Monday condemned “hostile forces inside and outside Syria” for a drone attack last week that caused many casualties in the country, calling it a terrorist attempt to overthrow the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Scores of people were killed in a drone attack on a graduation ceremony at a military academy in the Homs region in Syria on Oct. 5, in one of the bloodiest strikes against the military in more than 12 years of civil war.
“The recent hideous terrorist act was prompted by … the hostile forces inside and outside Syria who are … attempting to overthrow the legitimate regime of Syria,” state media KCNA said on Monday, citing North Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
In November last year, Assad swore in a new ambassador to North Korea according to a statement by the Syrian government, continuing a history of ties between reclusive Pyongyang and Damascus, diplomatically isolated under a decade of Western sanctions.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Sonali Paul)
