China and Russia have begun naval drills near North Korea amid continuing nuclear tensions, while Germany has urged for direct talks with the isolated state to resolve the standoff.
North Korea launched a missile over Japan last Friday, its second in the past three weeks, and conducted its sixth and by far most powerful nuclear test on September 3, in defiance of international pressure.
The official Xinhua news agency said the joint naval exercises would take place between Peter the Great Bay, not far from the Russia-North Korea border, and into the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, to the north of Japan.
The drills are the second part of China-Russian exercises this year — the first part of which took place in the Baltic in July.
The report did not directly link the drills to current tensions over North Korea.
Meanwhile officials in Germany, which holds an election on Sunday, have been adamant there must be a diplomatic solution to tensions in the Korean penninsula.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has pointed to the negotiations that led to Iran curtailing its nuclear program as a possible model.
Germany foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel told the Bild daily the world should wait for sanctions to bite, but "visions and courageous steps" were also needed.
He said "a security guarantee other than the nuclear bomb" was needed for North Korea and pointed to Cold War detente as an example.
Mr Gabriel said that required direct negotiations with North Korea and argued that the US, China and Russia should participate.
And in editorial published in the New York Times, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the international community must remain united and enforce sanctions against North Korea.
Mr Abe said such tests were in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and showed North Korea could now target the United States or Europe.
Diplomacy and dialogue would not work with North Korea, and concerted pressure by the entire international community was essential to tackle the threats posed by North Korea, Mr Abe wrote.
