“* What about Russia, which also shares a border and already has ongoing exchanges with the country? “
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mostly missile tech apparently ... Russia will sell anything to anyone for the right price hence the sale of missile tech to NOKO - the Chinese aren’t that desperate for cash or that dumb, besides they got most of theirs from the Russians anyway.
Putin will not willingly lose a cash cow, unless presented with a viable replacement.
Re: Russia
1) Apparently there’s some plans for a pipeline with the North or something.
2) Russia already utilizes (sadly in slavery like conditions) North Korean laborers for construction projects like the World Cup stadiums.
3) Russia is in the midst of demographic crisis. There are longstanding concerns over the sparsely populated Far East region of Russia being vulnerable to Chinese coming in...Ethnic Koreans already have historic presence in Russia also. North Korea or an impending refugee crisis might add to those worries.
Plus N.Korea also ‘always’ sells whatever they make and can duplicate regarding missiles and other defense weaponry to other rogue and dangerous countries....N.Korea being a conduit for Russia and China....who are of course now sleeping together for a time.