Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has urged Russia to collaborate against the policies pursued by the DPRK and voiced the hope joint steps on the part of Japan and Russia would help scale down the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

He said it in an interview with Channel One Russia’s show ‘Nighttime with Vladimir Solovyov’.

"I hope the joint actions on the part of Japan and Russia and the entire world community, including a still tougher resolution of the UN Security Council, and utmost pressure on North Korea will bring about changes in its policies," Abe said. "For this purpose, I call on Russia to cooperate so that it would resolutely show initiative in the current situation."

He added that Japan and Russia had agreed to cooperate at diverse levels.

"We agreed to hold an in-depth discussion of the problem at a meeting in Vladivostok," Abe said.

The situation in Korean remains extremely tense in the wake of DPRK’s steps to ramify its nuclear and missile program. The country held two ballistic missile tests in July and launched a yet another missile on August 29.

On September 3, it announced a successful test of a thermonuclear explosive that could be used as a warhead at an intercontinental ballistic missile.