The walls of Moscow's Museum of Decorative Arts are lined with grandiose tributes by North Korean artists to the flourishing partnership formed in the heat of battle in Ukraine.

The two countries have bolstered political, military, economic and cultural links amid Russia's offensive on Ukraine, casting themselves as brotherly nations.

Moscow and Pyongyang spent months denying and ignoring Western reports that thousands of North Korean soldiers had been deployed to Russia's western Kursk region to fight off a Ukrainian incursion.

But when Russia declared in April it had expelled Kyiv's troops from its territory, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly acknowledged the role of the "heroic" North Koreans who fought alongside his army.

And now imagined scenes from that deployment have been put on display in the show.

One canvas called "For a Brother-in-Arms" depicts North Korea's soldiers, machine guns in hand, clearly relishing the prospect of combat.

Another has camouflaged fighters from both countries waving their national flags in stunning realistic poses. Others show missiles being launched and fighter jets striking an island.

- 'Making Kimchi' -

It is not just on the front lines that the two countries have grown closer.

Portraits of supreme leader Kim Jong Un have an honoured place in the show, as well as a hommage to kimchi, Korea's beloved spicy and pungent cabbage pickle.

Putin and Kim have embraced each other, most recently attending a grand military parade in Beijing to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II -- both as Chinese President Xi Jinping's guests of honour.

Direct flights between Moscow and Pyongyang began this summer, as increasing numbers of officials and delegations shuttle between the two capitals, with Russian tourists travelling to North Korea's new Wonsan-Kalma beach resort.

And in Moscow, a North Korean restaurant that serves cold noodles and other delicacies is regularly packed out.

At the start of the exhibition, visitors are invited by a Russian guide to look at a giant photo of Kim shaking hands with Putin.

A panorama of the North Korean capital glistening brightly, called "Pyongyang at Night", also features prominently.

The style is heavily reminiscent of socialist realism -- the Soviet Union's predominant art form -- with titles describing literally what is depicted, free of hidden meaning or subtle depth.

"Making kimchi" shows just that -- multiple generations of a North Korean family hunched on the floor preparing the traditional dish of fermented spicy cabbage and radishes.

North Korea is one of the world's most closed nations, regularly criticised by rights groups for its repressive policies and outlawing of dissent.

The United Nations last month said the past decade inside the country had been marked by "increased suffering, repression and fear".

Moscow and Pyongyang last year signed a comprehensive partnership that includes mutual defence clauses.

- 'Temporary partnership' -

Two 25-year-old Russians visitors to the museum, who declined to give their names, said they came for the "exoticism".

"At the time of the Soviet Union, our realist painters showed the achievements of socialism," said one, a computer science student.

"They did not brag, like North Koreans," he added.

Asked about the durability of the burgeoning new alliance, the other man told AFP that "it will not be for long".

As he spoke, a man with a pin of Kim Il Sung -- the founder of North Korean -- and his son Kim Jong Il, edged in closer, trying to to better hear the conversation.

"I call it a temporary partnership," the student added.

"It's only for the time of the war in Ukraine."