Near the end of July, a month and a half into Hong Kong’s 2019 protests, North Korean state media weighed in on the events bedeviling its fellow one-party state and major trading partner.

With marches on weekends and public holidays consistently turning into violent clashes between police and black-clad masked protesters who publicly attacked symbols of Chinese authority and damaged property, it surprised few observers that the Korean Central News Agency backed China’s party line: 

“In recent days, dishonest forces, instigated by the Western countries, have raised a riot in Hong Kong, China against the revision of law on