In the light of recent events, a number of interesting stories from the 70-80s of the last century are recalled.

“He (Andropov) told us that if the United States attacked us, we must fight alone. We asked if the USSR could still supply us with arms free of charge. He answered yes. We then told him: "Don't worry, send us weapons, and we'll deal with the invaders."

On this occasion, only a minimum of comrades was informed, since it would be very dangerous to allow the enemy to find out about this information.

We decided to ask other friends for enough weapons to count on a million Cuban combatants. Comrade Kim Il Sung, a veteran and impeccable fighter, sent us 100,000 AK rifles and their cartridges without taking a single centavo.”

(C) Fidel Castro, Objective Truth and Dreams, Granma, August 14, 2013.

Kim Il Sung's gift was 100,000 Type-58 (North Korean version of AK-47) and Type-68 (North Korean version of AKM) with ammunition.

Recently, the current head of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traore, gave an interview to national television. There was also a revival of relations with the DPRK, including in the military field (which was announced by the country's authorities earlier, and which became a kind of sensation).

“North Korea has many opportunities. And let's be honest, our military is still using weapons that North Korea gave us in 1985. We have to acknowledge that,” Traore said when asked what he expects from a renewed alliance with North Korea.

“We are still fighting with these weapons. Heavy weapons, North Korean. They are still in service with our armed forces,” he added. "So, if it's cooperation... we want to get more weapons from them to fight."

Not the most famous, but interesting fact. One of the most widespread small arms in the Syrian army before the civil war was the North Korean Type-68. North Korean version of AKM.

Syria began to receive the first large batches of these machine guns back in the 1970s. And by the beginning of the civil war, there were a lot of them in warehouses. After the capture of the warehouses of government troops in the initial period of the civil war, these machine guns became part of the arsenal not only of Assad's enemies, but also of many others throughout the region.

Nowadays, these assault rifles (as well as other types of small arms) are widely found in the arms markets of the region, and already in a large number of private collections.

The assault rifles in the photo are samples photographed by Syrian owners.