While the world's eyes remain fixed on Ukraine, Russia has been nurturing another, quieter alliance - one that's making diplomats everywhere sit up.

On October 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin met North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in Moscow, in what many analysts are calling a "strategic handshake between outcasts," reports Al Jazeera.

Choe praised the "spiritual closeness" between Pyongyang and Moscow, commending Russia's "resistance to Western hegemony". Putin echoed the sentiment, describing ties as "developing according to plan". Beneath the warm words, however, lies a pragmatic reality - both nations are suffocating under sanctions and see each other as lifelines.

"This is about survival diplomacy," said Dr Elena Markovic, an international relations expert at the University of Belgrade. "Russia needs arms and political solidarity; North Korea needs food, fuel, and legitimacy. It's a transactional friendship dressed up as ideological kinship."

The sanctions angle is impossible to ignore. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the US, EU and their allies have imposed more than 16,000 sanctions targeting its energy, banking and defence sectors. Frozen assets, blocked technology imports and restrictions on oil exports have pushed Moscow to seek alternative partners in Asia and the Global South.

North Korea, meanwhile, has lived under heavy UN sanctions since 2006 for its nuclear weapons program. These include bans on coal, iron, seafood and arms exports, as well as strict caps on oil imports and financial transactions. Pyongyang's isolation worsened after pandemic border closures - but Moscow's open door offers a rare economic and diplomatic escape hatch.

According to Reuters, Western intelligence reports have warned that North Korea may be supplying artillery shells and short-range ballistic missiles to Russia in violation of UN arms embargoes. Both countries deny any illicit trade, insisting their cooperation is "purely diplomatic". Still, satellite imagery and intercepted communications have fuelled suspicions of sanctioned weapons transfers through Russian ports in the Far East.

For Pyongyang, even symbolic gestures matter. Soo-jin Park, a Seoul-based security analyst, said: "Every photo-op with Putin signals that North Korea isn't as isolated as Washington would like to believe. It boosts internal propaganda and sends a message to China: North Korea has other powerful friends now."

The budding partnership also highlights a broader shift in global alignment. Dr Anthony Hall of the European Council on Foreign Affairs said: "Russia is reconstructing a parallel diplomatic universe. It's not about prestige anymore - it's about endurance. If the West won't trade or talk, Moscow will find those who will."

As the war in Ukraine drags on, the Moscow-Pyongyang partnership is likely to deepen. Each benefits from defying Western pressure - and in today's world, mutual defiance can be a potent bond.

For now, the smiles in Moscow say it all - two sanctioned states, standing shoulder to shoulder, daring the world to stop them.