Putin and Kim: Love In.

One remembers when Trump was in office and met Kim Jong-un. Some compared it to when Reagan and Gorbachev met. When both leaders agreed on reductions in nuclear arms. The agreements made then were substantial.

However, one cannot say the same about the Trump-Kim meetings. Those meetings started well, the chemistry between the two men seemed good. However, everything soured and for the rest of Trump's time in office, neither Trump nor Kim darkened each other's doors again.

Now 'Vlad The Invader' and Kim Jong-un have met. This was the first time Mr. Putin had visited North Korea since 2000. There is a good reason why Vlad would go calling on the North Korean dictator. On the battlefield, Russia is running low on arms. Iran has been sending drones to Russia and other munitions, no doubt. China at least in public, is not supplying Russia with weapons. It is instead shouting support for Russia's war with Ukraine, from the sidelines.

So, North Korea and Russia have signed a pact in Pyongyang. A pact that will see Russia help with North Korea's space programme. North Korea has space ambitions. North Korea has not only been test-firing rockets for military purposes. These rockets are capable of carrying people and satellites into space. However, the recent launch of a North Korean satellite failed. This is where Russia's space expertise could/would come in. In return, North Korea will supply Russia with weapons in battles with Ukraine.

The West recently agreed to Ukraine using Western weapons within Russia. Putin condemned this and said he would supply weapons to enemies of the West. The war in Ukraine has been raging since Russian forces invaded Ukraine. This war has dragged on and on with neither side giving way. The West notably the US has trained and supplied Ukraine in its war with Russia. Russia under Western sanctions has been supplied by Iran, now North Korea, and just maybe China, in its war effort.

North Korea and Russia have signed another pact. This pact is to come to each other's aid should either nation be externally attacked. Kim Jong-un was singing the praises of this pact saying Russia and North Korea have never been closer.

Nations like Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China are heavily under Western sanctions. They are regarded as pariah nations and so they have cosied up together. All four have much in common, all are dictatorships, for example. China and North Korea are dictatorships - that's it. North Korea is an old-fashioned Soviet Communist nation. China is Communist but has flirted with Western market forces.

Iran is a religious dictatorship but it has democracy as long as presidential candidates and those elected to the majlis (parliament) toe the line of the constitution set down by Ayatollah Khomeini. Russia is a dictatorship with the pretence of democracy which stops and arrests opponents of Putin. Allowing Vlad The Invader to stay in power. Putin is the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin.

The situation between North Korea and the South has not changed. North Korea and South Korea could still go to war. The situation is still tense since that war raged and ended on the 38th parallel. The Americans back the South while China backs the North. China has designs on Taiwan and regards the island as a runaway province that must reunite with the mainland. President Xi of China has made no secret that he wishes Chinese forces to invade the island. This could drag in the US and others.

Iran has its tentacles all over the Middle East. In Gaza, there is Hamas, currently battling the IDF, and there is Hezbollah in the north of Israel and south Lebanon fighting the IDF. In Yemen, there are the Houthis. In Syria and Iraq, there are Iran-backed militias. Russia is fighting Ukraine, one of the first major wars in Europe since the NATO conflict with Serbia and WW II.

The above conflicts could start WW III and that is an avenue none of us, if we have any common sense, would wish to go down.

Ukrainer