The recent visit of Vladimir Putin to North Korea has received a fair amount of attention in the press and public commentary. As Putin's Russia continues to prosecute its evil war in Ukraine, Russia seeks to shore up relations and lines of supply from countries that include Iran, China and North Korea. The posturing of Putin and Kim in Pyongyang looks familiar. We'd have to admit there has been similar posturing on behalf of Ukraine in the United States and Europe at various meetings and gatherings. What does this imply for South Korea as a key ally of the United States, and for security in Northeast Asia?

The war in Ukraine is unjust on the part of Russia. Whether to perpetuate his memory or to serve the cause of a greater Russian Tsarist delusion, including a buffer zone on its western border, it's a fool's errand. This 21st-century version of the Vietnam War we see in progress will likely end in a stalemate. The territory lost or gained is less important than the toll on lives, cost and galvanization of alliances. The war signals the bipolar world of China and the United States is forming. Hopefully, it will bring on the end of Putin's failed regime, in a way analogous to the disastrous Afghanistan campaign of last century for the former Soviet Union.

The Ukraine war shows that contemporary conflicts, occurring in the shadow of nuclear weapons, will be conventional and blur the lines between what is counterforce and countervalue. Russia's meat-grinder human army formations complement its raze-the-face-of-the-earth use of weapons and attacks on infrastructure. Drones are the new weapon of choice — and hot missiles of all types. Just as Saddam Hussein's bitterness showed forth in setting oil wells ablaze, Putin does the same with electrical grids, housing, daycares, schools, historic sites and entire cities or towns. Instead of genocide or ethnic cleansing, Putin pursues civilization cleansing. A military that seeks to diminish an enemy population's will to fight may succeed but often only aggravates its task.

Putin's alliance with North Korea and China shows three national leaders willing to deny autonomy to others for their power projects. Russia, Iran and North Korea are declining powers, unlikely to emerge from this century with any axis of progress. China and India would do well to consider that their BRICS proposals will land like a "brick" shot in basketball. True, demagoguery is a technology that still sells, and many populations seem content to trade freedom for security and self-identification with an icon of autocracy. However, most of the advanced world is siding with freedom, since this technology has produced growth, development and the spread of peace.

South Korea should not consider lightly the consequences for its national and regional security. News reports have featured Russia's indication that consequences will follow any supplying of arms or munitions to Ukraine. To my thinking, this is a small beer. Russia has already placed itself in the enemy's position by allying with North Korea in the face of the South and her allies. I do think this is akin to one of Pyongyang's garbage balloons. South Koreans and the Yoon government should continue the resolute development of security relationships in the Alliance for Freedom. They also should support Ukraine as their people and government would choose to do.

I've read that China is not unqualifiedly happy with Pyongyang's machinations, or by inference, with Russia for relying on so many of those North Korean smart and dumb bombs. It draws unwanted tensions to their backyard. The fears of hordes of North Koreans fleeing to China, or of a freedom-loving power coming to exist on its eastern border can't please Xi and the Communist Party of China. And while China continues to find an angry and military-forward Pyongyang to its liking too much, this doesn't help China's cause for world ascendancy. To seriously entertain Russia as succeeding in a war of attrition also is risky. To side with two losing and warmongering states against the will of the majority of global nations is stupidity.

South Korea's security relationships with the United States, Japan and Europe will continue to grow. The alliance for freedom is a necessary partnership that will continue to develop for the causes of freedom and security. It's trite to say this will only encourage declining powers to align with China or push the world to greater insecurity. For South Korea not to help a country like Ukraine is similar to freedom-loving nations not acting to help Korea in the 1950s. Putin's wry smiles mask a deep insecurity borne of the inner knowledge that his cause, if not yet lost, is a losing epitaph to his reign. I don't think the Russian people or Russian history texts will see his era of totalitarianism kindly. But right now, he's content to appear as rootin' tootin' Vladimir Putin.

Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and academic services and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and a former visiting professor at Hanyang University.