They gazed into the workings of a rocket launchpad. They tucked into crab dumplings, sturgeon and entrecôte. And they lifted their glasses at a flower-lined table in the conference room of a remote Russian spaceport, toasting the Kremlin’s “sacred struggle” against a “band of evil”, otherwise known as the West.

The summit between President Vladimir Putin of Russia and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, which took place on Wednesday at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia, signalled a potential new era in relations between Moscow and Pyongyang, as two isolated leaders on wartime footing embraced each other in their moments of need.