Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are now, but they were aligned with the Soviets until there stopped being Soviets. Naturally they sought out a new patron after that.
Not quite. The SU started rolling back its support for NK in 1985, four years before the SU fell. In fact, it seems probable to me that NK didn't fall along with the rest of the SU precisely because of this. But the point I was really trying to make is that calling NK anyone's puppet is not really accurate, and arguably never was. They are certainly dependent on China nowadays, but it is far from clear who is pulling…
China's interests are preventing NK from getting too far out of hand and China ends up flooded with millions of NK refugees.