It seems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might be jumping on his armored train this month to visit President Vladimir Putin in Russia. That’s the news from The New York Times.

The reclusive Mr. Kim almost never leaves his country, but the inducement could be considerable. Russia is burning through its stocks of artillery in Ukraine. North Korea can help.

Putting aside the sanctions against North Korea that would prohibit such trade, a deal makes sense for both sides. Russia needs military materiel, and North Korea needs food, oil, and money. Russian officials went so far as to suggest recently that North Korea could take part in joint military drills with Russia and China. That’s more than a handshake and slap on the back.

But is this a new “axis of evil”? By fueling the Ukraine war, does North Korea get the technology and know-how to build a nuclear weapon – or at least accelerate its program?

On one hand, a robust relationship could significantly undermine international sanctions, giving North Korea money it would otherwise not have. Yet Russia has long been wary of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, supporting the last round of international sanctions in 2017. While North Korea will have significant leverage, there will almost certainly be a limit to how far Russia will go.

“North Korea is an enormous nuisance,” the Monitor’s Paris-based international editor and former Moscow bureau chief, Peter Ford, tells me. “Rogue nuclear states are as unwelcome there as they are here. Supporting that isn’t in anybody’s interests.”