Ukraine

Yeah, that fits. I kinda leaned toward aviation technology, but without a broad industrial base to use it, that would only help so much. Air defense technology is much more reliable on a short budget than trying to field your own modern air force. Especially when your country is all mountains anyway. And oil is something plentiful that Russia has excess of. Also expected food export agreements to be part of it, since N Korea is short on arable land and Russia is not.