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Russia's defence minister has proposed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that their countries hold a naval exercise, along with China, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, citing South Korea's intelligence agency.

Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea for the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, celebrated in North Korea as "Victory Day", in July when he met Kim.

They attended a defence exhibition featuring North Korea's banned ballistic missiles, North Korean state media reported at the time.

Yonhap reported that Shoigu had made the proposal for a three-way naval exercise to Kim during his visit but it provided no details.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service told the National Assembly that Shoigu appeared to have held a private meeting with Kim to agree on broad military expansion, Yonhap reported.

Russia and North Korea have recently called for closer military ties but North Korea has denied having any "arms dealings" with Russia.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told a press briefing last month that Shoigu had tried on his visit to North Korea to sell artillery ammunition to Russia.

The United States recently imposed sanctions on three entities it accused of being tied to arms deals between North Korea and Russia.

North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006 and had been testing various missiles over recent years but it rarely holds military exercises with its neighbours.

The United States and its ally, South Korea, hold regular military exercises, which North Korea denounced as preparations for war against it. (Reuters)

Western sanctions against Russia are driving the BRICS grouping of countries closer together in addition to curbing Moscow's oil revenue, some executives at a major Asia energy conference said.

Sanctions imposed by the Group of Seven and other western countries in the aftermath of Russia's invasion last year of Ukraine have capped Russian energy revenues and forced a drastic re-drawing of the global energy map.

"Western sanctions on Russia are working ... In the sense that they're creating less or lower revenues," Russell Hardy, chief executive of Vitol, the world's largest independent oil trader, told the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC) in Singapore on Monday.

"The flip side of sanctions is that it is creating stronger bonds between BRICS countries ... So I think that's a very negative aspect," he added.

The BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - invited Iran, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Ethiopia and Egypt into the club during a summit last month in Johannesburg.

Since the imposition of sanctions, India and China have drastically stepped up imports of Russian oil and have used currencies other than the dollar to pay for it, as the BRICS grouping seeks to challenge the dollar's dominance, with China in particular keen to widen use of its renminbi.

"Everybody is irritated by the U.S. government, the U.S. Treasury sanctioning ... So people say is there any way to create a counter-force, counterbalance to G7 or G20? BRICS is the candidate," Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman of the FGE energy consultancy, told the event.

However, he said, an expanded BRICS grouping would not replace the dollar, noting, for example, that the currencies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are pegged to the dollar.

"Nobody can replace the U.S. dollar," he said.

The G7's price cap on Russian oil is effective in limiting Russia's revenue and oil supplies, a senior U.S. Treasury official told the conference, even as market data shows that most Russian crude and fuel exports from the Baltic and Black Sea regions are sold above the $60 cap.

"Over the course of the past year, we feel very good about where we are," said Eric Van Nostrand, acting assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, with respect to the price cap limiting Russia's revenue while keeping oil supplies flowing.

"We want to extract that natural resource (out of Russia)... but to do so while limiting (President Vladimir) Putin's revenue as best we can." (Reuters)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Monday the government would allocate an additional 20.7 billion yen ($141.41 million) to support the fisheries industry after China's total import ban of Japanese aquatic products.

The ban followed the start of Japan's release of treated radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last month.

The government had previously set up two funds worth 80 billion yen to help develop new markets and keep excess fish frozen until they can be sold when demand recovers, among other measures.

With the additional funding, from budget reserves, support would total 100.7 billion yen, Kishida said. (Reuters)

Vanuatu's parliament elected Sato Kilman as the Pacific Island nation's new prime minister on Monday.

Kilman was elected 27 votes to 23 in a secret ballot on Monday after a court upheld the results of a no-confidence motion in Ishmael Kalsakau. (Reuters)