North Korea has always been technology very advanced in certain areas. For a very long time it was the economically strongest country in Asia, buying & developing modern tech from all over the world. Wealthy people from all over the world still go there to get certain types of very high-tec healthcare.
They have always had a very broad and efficient education system, since part of the Juche idea is to have a "whole society of intellectuals". Since it's been compulsory in NK to read a second language for many decades, most of the population either know Russian, English or Chinese, so they are able to utilize any information gathered from abroad.
This means that no one, except for (most likely) China really know their technological level when it comes to weaponry, so you cant just write them off. And China would be fairly likely to defend them if anything happens.
But I cant see them initiating anything. If you read all of Kim Jong-Il's books about Juche there is basically one message - dont get ****ed over by bigger countries.
"Sovereignty is an inviolable right of all parties, all countries, and all peoples. There are big and small parties, big and small countries, and economically developed and underdeveloped peoples in the world, but all parties, all countries and peoples are equal and independent. No one should encroach upon the sovereignty of others and no one should tolerate encroachment on one’s sovereignty." - from "On the Juche idea" by Kim Jong Il.
Though the Songun ideology & tight relation to China make them more of a threat, the main idea is still "leave us the **** alone". They have no reason to be the aggressor against anyone. If there is a war between NK and any other foreign power than SK, it is because that foreign power is instigating it to get hold of their vast mineral reserves.
North Korea is very far from how Western media pictures it, which is the usual case when the military-industrial-media complex is drooling over opportunities to expand its empire.
