I am not saying it is particularly feasible, just what might make sense to Lil Kim and his trope of yes-men on their way to acquire megaton city-busters. It is clear they still think very much on ideological terms, and that they are going to be the Korea that ultimately prevails, even if takes 100 years or more for them to resume the war.

Also, South Korea is like 15 years away from $40,000 on nominal terms, I think you meant that on PPP terms? On which case, the economy of Russia is over twice as large as South Korea's according to CIA, a gap likely to slighly increase on the upcoming decades, according to PwC. Mature economies grow slowly, after all, so I assume North Korea will also catch up to some extent.

Nope, it's exactly what I said ... 

Russia could have lower living cost getting better value per dollar in terms of production when speaking of PPP but their absolute nominal GDP normalized with respect to USDs is lower ... (Russia also has a demographic crisis so socially speaking they can't afford to get directly involved in war. HIV could reach 2+ million cases in the country, the population is getting old, men have a lower life expectancy, large portions of the population will become pensioners just like Japan which will put huge financial strains on the nations social security and worst of all oil prices keep falling while their neighbor China is trying to cut down on foreign dependence of energy by investing in renewable sources making it harder for Russia to see growth, especially under sanctions by the rest of the western hemisphere.) 

Russia as a nation, much less a superpower is fading into oblivion and cannot be saved since it's plagued with chronic illness, demographics, and isolationism ... (The only reason why the rest of the world even takes shit from Russia is cause they have nukes but I wonder once the country is reduced to half of it's population will they then be able to resist their neighbor's expansionist policies ?) 

Despite the fact that South Korea is maturing their still more likely to grow than Russia is and North Korea will forever be behind since the vast majority of the population will live in rural areas for years to coming making them lag in industrialization and automation for decades to come since they don't have proper infrastructure to support them in place ...