The Day Europe Lost Its Innocence

Beijing, September 3, 2025. The sun rose over Tiananmen Square and illuminated a scene of surreal symbolism: three men whose regimes are responsible for the systematic oppression of millions shook hands like old business partners at a routine contract signing. But what Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un sealed that morning was no ordinary deal. It was the public burial of the world order that had guaranteed Europe peace and prosperity since 1945.

The words Putin addressed to Kim in the gilded splendor of the Diaoyutai Guesthouse echoed like thunderclaps through the corridors of European power: "Your soldiers fought bravely and heroically. We will never forget the sacrifices your troops and the families of your soldiers have made." A Russian president and war criminal thanked a North Korean dictator for sending his troops - not somewhere in Asia, but in Kursk, on European soil. The monstrosity of this reality seems almost banal in its dry factuality: 15,000 North Korean soldiers dispatched to defend Russian sovereignty, 4,000 of them already dead or wounded. Numbers that in their coldness mask the heat of a war that has long since broken through the geographical and conceptual boundaries we once thought insurmountable.

The choreography of the new world order

What took place in Beijing was not a spontaneous meeting of three despots but a meticulously orchestrated demonstration of power with Shakespearean drama. Xi Jinping, the host of this macabre ballet, staged himself as the referee of a new era - neutral in his superiority, yet complicit in his toleration. The Chinese military parade marking the anniversary of the end of the war provided the perfect backdrop for a message that was disturbing in its clarity: while Europe still thinks in the categories of the 20th century, the autocrats of the 21st century have long since begun to redraw the map.

The two and a half hours Putin and Kim spent together were more than diplomatic protocol. They were an investment in a future in which the boundaries between Asia and Europe, between regional conflicts and global wars, between the thinkable and the unthinkable blur. North Korean soldiers, raised in the hermetic isolation of the Kim regime, suddenly found themselves in the trenches of Kursk, fighting for a Russian tsar of the 21st century. Reports of their "suicidal" tactics - pulling grenade pins instead of surrendering - tell of a combat mentality that not only challenges Western military doctrines but fundamentally calls them into question.

Europe's dance on the volcano

While history was being made in Beijing, Europe remained in a kind of diplomatic catalepsy, trapped between the rhetoric of past greatness and the reality of present impotence. The ritualized outrage from Brussels, Berlin and Paris - more sanctions are being considered, diplomatic protests formulated, concern expressed - sounds like the mumbling of incantations in a world that has long since stopped believing in magic. The bitterly ironic truth is that the very institutions Europe created after two world wars to ensure there would never again be war on its soil must now helplessly watch as North Korean soldiers soak European earth with their blood.

European paralysis is not only political but above all psychological. Generations who grew up in the certainty that diplomacy and dialogue could solve any crisis now face opponents for whom violence is not the last but the first means of politics. This cognitive dissonance between what should be and what is paralyzes decision-making in European capitals. They debate proportionality and de-escalation while the other side has long been thinking and acting in terms of total confrontation.

The American paradox

Donald Trump's sarcastic "warmest regards" to the authoritarian triumvirate reveal the complexity and contradictions of the American position. The president, who bases his foreign policy on bilateral deals and personal relationships, faces a multilateral challenge that eludes his transactional instincts. His accusation of a "conspiracy against America" hits the core of the matter and misses it at the same time: it is not a conspiracy in the classic sense but the open, almost arrogant demonstration of a new power architecture that no longer sees America as the undisputed hegemon but at best as primus inter pares.

The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and "blood" that the United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader. Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory. I hope that they are rightfully Honored and Remembered for their Bravery and Sacrifice! May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

The 28,000 American soldiers in South Korea, once a symbol of American security guarantees in Asia, are becoming potential hostages of an escalation dynamic that Washington no longer fully controls. North Korean troops who are learning modern warfare in Kursk today - from drone deployment to electronic warfare - will be able to use this knowledge against American forces tomorrow. The strategic equation has fundamentally changed: America must now keep not just one but three nuclear-armed powers in check simultaneously, powers that despite all ideological differences are united in their opposition to the West.

The hour of truth

September 3, 2025 will go down in history as the day when the comfortable illusion of European security finally burst. The meeting in Beijing was more than a diplomatic encounter - it was the proclamation of a new world disorder in which the rules of power and violence are being rewritten. Putin, Xi and Kim have not just forged an alliance - they have demonstrated that the era of Western dominance is irrevocably over.

Europe stands at the crossroads between two futures: it can either wake up from its self-inflicted lethargy and face the challenge with the determination its ancestors showed in darker hours of history. Or it can continue to dance on the volcano until the lava of history engulfs it. The North Korean soldiers in Kursk are not just a military anomaly - they are the harbingers of a world in which everything we once thought unthinkable becomes the new normal.

History will judge mercilessly those who hesitated in this moment of decision while the tectonic plates of the world order were already shifting beneath their feet. Right now investigative journalists are needed more than ever. Everything that can be brought to light must be brought to light. Networks and alliances must be exposed, names named. Every company in Europe that continues to supply material for Russian weapons production must be identified and held accountable. We are doing our job, even if we are just the small Kaizen Blog, but we know our craft, see: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/der-mann-der-fuer-zwei-armeen-arbeitet-wie-henri-proglio-putins-millionen-zaehlt-und-kiews-waffen-prueft/ +++ https://kaizen-blog.org/en/wie-russlands-technische-kommission-europa-ins-digitale-abseits-draengt/ – perhaps politics should finally do its job too. Putin's thanks to Kim was not a diplomatic courtesy - it was a public declaration of war on the principles on which our civilization rests. The time of comfortable illusions is over. What remains is the naked truth of a world in which democracy and freedom are no longer a given but must once again be fought for. Day by day, trench by trench, soul by soul.