"At one point, Putin and his host toured Kim Il Sung Square to the sound of the famous Soviet 'Song of the Motherland,' whose refrain (in my translation) goes thus:
In the world I know no other country
Where a man can breathe as free as here.
Written in 1936 on the eve of Joseph Stalin’s Great Terror, it’s the perfect soundtrack for a Russia/North Korea lovefest in 2024."
"Putin and Kim are leaders of pariah nations, unwelcome in capitals around the world by anyone other than fellow pariah leaders. North Korea is one of the few nations where Putin can land the Russian version of Air Force One. …
Putin may indeed need to buddy up to his fellow pariah to get his ammo, but their alliance, even if temporary, is a dangerous one."
Putin promised unspecified technological help to #NorthKorea, which could advance its #NuclearWeapons prgm.
As Putin’s #Russia & #Xi’s #China deepened confrontation w/the West over the past decade, they were united w/the #US on at least one #geopolitical project: dismantling or at least containing North Korea’s #nuclear arsenal.
That is, until the #war in #Ukraine broke out 2 yrs ago.
In one of the starkest back-to-the #ColdWar moments yet, #Putin’s visit Wed to Pyongyang — & the announcement of a pact to provide “mutual assistance in the event of aggression” — underscored that efforts by the world’s 3 biggest #nuclear powers to halt nuclear proliferation by #NorthKorea had been dying for some time. Putin & #KimJongUn, the North’s leader, just presided over the memorial service.
To the contrary, #Putin declared: “Pyongyang has the right to take reasonable measures to strengthen its own #defense capability, ensure #NationalSecurity & protect sovereignty” — though he did not address whether those measures included further developing #NorthKorea’s #NuclearWeapons.
"Twenty-five historians of the civil war and Reconstruction filed a US supreme court brief in support of the attempt by Colorado to remove Donald Trump from the ballot under the 14th amendment, which bars insurrectionists from running for office."