Dealing with 2 evil states: North Korea and Syria 

The North Korean crisis is directly related to the division of Korea into two separated states by the Allied Powers in World War II in 1945, whereas the Syrian crisis was touched off by a domestic democratic movement influenced by the Arab Spring in 2011. The main cause of the North Korean crisis is the North Korean regime’s complete distrust and antagonism toward South Korea and the US. Since the US and China are allied with South Korea and North Korea respectively, they are deeply involved in the inter-Korean conflict.
In the Syrian case, the democratic movement turned into an inveterate antagonism between the Alawites (a Shi’ite sect) and the Sunnis. Since the al-Assad regime is supported by the Alawites, the democratic movement turned into a sectarian war between the Shi’ites and the Sunnis within the country and in the Arab world — the former supported by Iran, the leading Shiite state, and the latter by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni neighbours.
Antagonism between the US and Russia is also pulled into this domestic conflict in which the US supports the pro-Western rebel forces and Russia directly supports the al-Assad regime. Russia wants to keep Syria as its foothold in the Middle East.
In contrast, the US is interested not so much in supporting the democratic forces as in preventing the Islamic extremist groups, particularly the Islamic State group, from taking over Syria and spreading their influence to other parts of the world. There is a similarity between the Syrian and the Korean situations in this sense. 
The only difference is that in the case of the Korean Peninsula, the US and China are the main external competitors, whereas in the Syrian case the main non-Arab competitors are the US and Russia.
Kim Jong-il and Basher al-Assad share a similar view of the outside world. Al-Assad once said that “the conflict in Syria is due to enemies outside of Syria and they would be taught a lesson”. Kim will completely agree with this view. Both look for a scapegoat for their internal difficulties.
The North Korean delegation told Assad in 2015 that North Korea and Syria are targeted because they are among those which enjoy “real independence”. North Korea and Syria also share similarity politically: Both are ruled by a totalitarian dictatorship. Kim Jong-un and Bashar al-Assad are political twins: They will never abandon their absolute political power in any circumstances. They identify themselves with their own state, and therefore they are willing to die with their own state. 
On the other hand, it is much easier for Kim than al-Assad to indoctrinate his people because Koreans are secular and homogeneous but Syrians are divided into different religious and sectarian groups which seek autonomy. The North Korean regime is strongly and tightly armed with one single ideology and spiritual determination. They are “juche” (self-reliance) ideology and the partisan spirit. Juche ideology stands for the independent spirit in all aspects of the state - political, economic and socio-cultural.
This ideology also justifies North Korea’s independent nuclear power. 
The most important codes of conduct of the partisan spirit are the will to persevere despite unbearable odds and commitment to solidarity.
Ba’athism can be the comparable Syrian ideology but is much weaker and run out than juche ideology.
Moreover, Kim Jong-un is supported by a ruling group composed of dedicated former anti-Japanese guerrillas’ descendants and other highly indoctrinated communist party leaders and their families. On the other hand, al-Assad is protected by the intelligence agency, the high-level military and secret police elites as well as various Alawite and Shiite groups but their loyalty has been weakening.
These indicate that the North Korean leadership is more consolidated and secure than the Syrian leadership, and therefore more dangerous and risky to eliminate Kim than al-Assad by force or subversion.
It is ironic that the Korean people who had enjoyed a single nationhood for almost 13 centuries (676-1950) live in two divided states while the Syrian people who have lived as one nation only since 1941 are still fighting for nationhood. If a state fails to guarantee 7 kinds of human security (economic, food, environmental, personal, community, political, and health security defined by the UN Human Development Report), it is no longer a state, because they are the raison d’etre of the state. North Korea and Syria have failed to meet all these standards. How to resolve the two crises is a common task of the Western powers which created Syria and the two Koreas.

The writer is a former career diplomat.