For the last few years we have had front row seats to watch the post-Cold War era get dismantled.
Earlier today, Vladimir Putin is greeted by children at a welcoming ceremony with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, Korea
19 June 2024 — In the past, despots would visit Moscow. Now Putin visits North Korea to beg for support. This is a very big change in the world order when you think about it. Before, dictators from all over the world had to travel to Moscow, to pay tribute. Now the power dynamics have changed. Putin had to travel to China, then to North Korea. As a lap dog, asking for ammo.
China established the new lap dog pecking order, first in Europe with Germany and Hungary (and even France), and now with Russia where it really counts. So now “Bunker Boy” arrived in North Korea for the first time in 25 years. Pyongyang is simply drowning in images of Putin’s face and Russian tricolor rags. Staged like a Cecil B. Demille epic (with lots of advice from American media companies), this North Korean propaganda piece guest starring the Moscow Gargoyle would be hilarious – if it wasn’t the solidifying of a relationship that aims to kill millions of Europeans. Russia is expected to withdraw from UN sanctions against North Korea. In return, Putin expects to receive weapons to continue his invasion of Ukraine: supplies of short-range ballistic missiles, projectiles, ammunition and spare parts, in exchange for food to North Korea.
Note to readers: The South Korean defense and intelligence ministries have already identified for Western intelligence at least 10,000 shipping containers suspected to be containing artillery ammunition and other weapons sent from North Korea to Russia. Those containers likely contain up to 5 million artillery shells. South Korean intelligence maintains a keen eye on North Korea munitions factories.
And yet the West continues to preach “de-escalation” as North Korean missiles are hitting Ukrainian cities, and Russian operatives are blowing up and setting fire to military storage facilities in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland – with Russian-backed operatives now suspected in an arson attack on a Ukrainian-linked business in London. Plus a wave of cyberattacks on European railway networks, and the jamming of GPS signals across the Baltic states. Hybrid warfare across Europe and NATO is toothless. Putin must have been hysterical with laughter when he watched new countries join NATO.
If Putin’s visit to North Korea is to be successful, we should expect some provocative actions from Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks (with China’s permission, of course). Putin needs another Gaza to distract world attention away from his invasion of Ukraine. Kim could launch missiles into the Sea of Japan, he could threaten South Korea and make incursions into the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, or he could directly threaten Japan. How far Kim goes will depend on the strength of deterrent and active responses from the West. But he will certainly make threats.
You would think Western media outlets understand this “big picture” and so report that any actions taken by North Korea are at the request of Putin and are designed to assist Putin’s war. Therein, the effects will be minimal. However, Putin knows the Western press better than the press know themselves. He knows that fear and bad news travel fast – and makes lots of money for those willing to spread it.
Gaza, horrendous as it has been, is a small war in comparison to the continued heavy casualties taking place in Ukraine. Gaza was and still is, a strategic victory for Putin. The Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s response redirected world attention and gave impetus to U.S. Republican attempts to slow down a vital aid package to Ukraine.
Putin is not getting the aid and support he wanted (and expected) from China, and he needs men and materiel. So he is filling his infantry ranks with poor, uneducated people from Africa and Asia with promises of life changing sums of money, in return for what is most likely to be a death sentence.
On the propaganda front, Putin is almost guaranteed a cheap success. The world press will redirect the attention of the public free of charge once again. They will sow fear into the public arena, and water it daily to please shareholders. As a result, this will give Putin hope, extend the war and cause the deaths of more Ukrainians. Your profit their blood. A mantra repeated throughout the world.
But these are geopolitical dynamics being altered with a dangerous twist. Once Putin or Russia is effectively under Chinese control (North Korea being merely a side show), the dynamics towards the West change as we are then basically in a proxy war. Where Ukraine is fighting for its survival and freedom but Russia is fighting as a proxy for China who has shown no respect whatsoever to international agreements. I suspect China might hold off for a bit but could feel the time is ripe to take by force what doesn’t come voluntarily in such a scenario. So what you have, really, is one major Asian power and one minor Asian power willing to continue to sacrifice Russians to fight their war with the West.
The rest of us? Irrelevant. As always, we shall always be vulnerable to the Evil who walks among us, salivating at his conquest of so many souls sold for his power for money and prestige and power. We are powerless. Mere observers – and sufferers.