I wouldn't be so dismissive. You familiar with that huge megalith hotel they built - the Ryugyong Hotel/hotel of doom? It's huge, never hosted a guest and is the epitome of a boondawgle, but it's also a fairly complex reinforced concrete structure designed "in house" - at face value anyway. It's pretty easy to educate an intelligent workforce and produce effective engineers. What seals the deal is being able to expose them to lots of differing conditions and project types. I'm sure the materials and methods used in North Korea and Russia vary wildly. This will be excellent experience for both countries.