Cho Tae-yul Visits Syria for Diplomatic Document Exchange
On April 10, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul visited Damascus, Syria, to sign a joint statement on establishing diplomatic relations between South Korea and Syria, after which he met with President Ahmed al-Sharaa. With this agreement, South Korea has established its 194th diplomatic relationship as Syria was the only UN member state, except for North Korea, with which South Korea had not established diplomatic ties. Following this normalization of relations with both Cuba, a close ally of North Korea, and now Syria, the South Korean government anticipates increasing diplomatic isolation for North Korea on the international stage.
On the same day, Minister Cho met with Syrian Foreign Minister Asad al-Shaibani and exchanged diplomatic documents. This follows the South Korean government’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Syria, which was ratified in a Cabinet meeting on March 18.
The discussions for establishing diplomatic relations between South Korea and Syria gained momentum following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s 54-year dictatorship in December last year and the subsequent rise of a transitional government led by the Sunni Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).