In its first 100 days, the Trump Administration has found itself in confrontation with two dictators: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.
Though they rule vastly different countries on opposite sides of the world, their regimes share some striking similarities.
Family business
The leaders of Syria and North Korea both inherited their positions from their fathers: Hafez al-Assad and Kim Jong Il. Their family dynasties have ruled countries of roughly similar size and population for decades, running police states that use brute force to crush dissent.
Dr. Leonid Petrov, Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, notes that while Syria and North Korea are not ideologically aligned, both have "hereditary dynastical lines which control their respective countries with fear and repression."
Hafez al-Assad seized power in 1970 in a bloodless coup by military leaders, and for 29 years he dominated Syrian life and politics.
Following the death of his first-born son in a car accident, Hafez groomed his second son, Bashar al-Assad, to be his heir apparent. Bashar took over in 2000 after Hafez's death.
The North Korean dictatorial dynasty goes back a little further than Syria's. With the help of the Soviet Union, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the Kim dynasty also known as "The Eternal President," became the first premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948.
Kim passed on the mantle to his son Kim Jong Il, who became Supreme Leader after his father's death from a heart attack in 1994. North Korea's current dictator, Kim Jong Un, is the youngest son of Kim Jong Il.
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