Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies, told BBC News.
Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies, told BBC News. People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on May 4, 2022.JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images But analysts say that even if Russia backs away from providing Kim with extensive weapons and technology support, the seemingly more modest step of providing fuel, food, and medicine for the ailing and impoverished North Korea could boost the economy and accelerate its nuclear program. "If Russia pays in oil and food, it can revive the North Korea economy, which in turn could then also strengthen North Korea's weapons system. It is an extra source of income for them that they didn't have,"