The on-again, off-again relationships used by North Korea to play China off against Russia is a familiar pattern used quite effectively over the years to keep both at arms length and from gobbling up the DPRK as a satellite country.

And with Russia’s announcement that they will continue to supply fuel oil shipments to the DPRK may show that Russia is now “on-again”.

If North Korea follows through on some speculations of wanting to cause a renewed sense of crisis in the Obama administration by testing another Nuke, the relationship with China will definitely be “off-again”.