China has long been the diplomatically isolated country's main economic backer, though Pyongyang has also drawn closer to Moscow since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
North Korea's economy is showing signs of recovery as Pyongyang deepens trade and diplomatic ties with Russia and China, South Korea's unification ministry said in a report on Friday.
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Rigid socialist planning and high military spending have undermined growth in North Korea for years, as have sweeping international sanctions aimed at scuppering its development of nuclear weapons.
China has long been the diplomatically isolated country's main economic backer, though Pyongyang has also drawn closer to Moscow since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Those relationships are now driving an improved economic outlook, with the North appearing to have "moved beyond a period of contraction" and "entered a phase of gradual recovery," according to the South Korean ministry.
The turnaround has come even as Pyongyang continues its nuclear and missile programmes, which it has vowed not to abandon despite years of international pressure.
The report outlined Seoul's basic plan for developing relations with the North through the end of the decade.
It said Pyongyang's expanding cooperation with Moscow and improving trade conditions with Beijing were key factors supporting the recovery.
Air China resumed direct flights between Beijing and Pyongyang in March after a six-year suspension and daily passenger rail services between the two capitals have also restarted.
China's foreign minister said in a visit to Pyongyang last week that Beijing hoped to further "promote practical cooperation."
Analysts say the North is also receiving economic and military technology assistance from Russia in return for sending troops and ammunition to help it fight Ukraine.
North Korea does not publish official data on the size of its economy.
Its nominal gross domestic product was equivalent to about $30 billion (€25 billion) in 2024, according to Seoul's official estimate, a tiny fraction of the South Korean economy, one of the most developed in the world.
North Korea has long faced shortages. A famine in the mid-1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people and reports indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic also pushed many into extreme hunger.
In February, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to lift living standards at a landmark congress, saying the country had overcome its "worst difficulties" in the past five years and was entering a stage of "optimism and confidence in the future."