China and Russia began naval drills near North Korea on Monday amid continuing tensions over the isolated state's nuclear ambitions and ahead of a United Nations General Assembly meeting this week, where North Korea is likely to loom large.
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 Sept. 3, in defiance of international pressure.
China's official Xinhua news agency said the joint exercises will take place between Peter the Great Bay, just outside of the Russian far eastern port of Vladivostok, not far from the Russia-North Korea border, and into the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, to the north of Japan.