Russia deploys missile defence system near N.Korea

ULAN BATOR (Reuters) - Russia has deployed a missile defence system near its border with North Korea and is studying other measures to protect its population from stray missiles, Russia's top general said on Wednesday.

Russia shares a small border with North Korea in the Far East and its main Pacific port of Vladivostok, with a population of 600,000, lies only 150 km (95 miles) from North Korea.

A series of missile launches and a nuclear weapon test by North Korea this year alarmed its neighbours, including South Korea, China and Japan.

"We are definitely concerned by the conditions under which tests are being carried out in North Korea, including nuclear devices," the chief of Russia's general staff Nikolai Makarov told journalists in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator.

"We already have an S-400 division there," he said, referring to a modernised version of a Soviet-designed surface-to-air missile unit.