Russia deploys defense missile system on Kuril island near Japan

Russia's defense ministry has said it has deployed mobile coastal defense missile systems on a northern Kuril island - part of a strategically located chain of islands that stretch between Japan and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.

Japan lays claim to the Russian-held southern Kuril islands that Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a territorial row that dates back to the end of World War Two when Soviet troops seized them from Japan.