As Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his first visit to North Korea in more than two decades this week, his focus is widely seen to be on securing ongoing support from the hermit nation for his grinding war in Ukraine.
The DPRK spent a lot of time building military might as deterrent and inherited many of the USSR's military intellectual development. With their development in nuclear weapons I thought maybe the purpose was to scale back their military and just focus on a nuclear deterrent, but now I'm not so sure.
The all out sanctions war on Russia was a monumental fuck up on the part of Biden admin. The fear of secondary sanctions was what kept Russia from working with Cuba, Iran, and DPRK this whole time. Now that threat is used up, and Russia no longer has any reason to conform to US sanctions on other countries.
In a manner akin to a protagonist in a classic Greek tragedy, the United States appears to be inexorably propelling itself towards its own downfall, defying the ominous prophecy that looms over its future.
I expect that the main idea will be that Russia will provide resources in exchange for DPRK doing manufacturing. This was largely the relationship back in USSR days as well incidentally. Russian economy is overheating right now, so outsourcing manufacturing makes a lot of sense.