The United Nations Security Council is set to meet and discuss North Korea's nuclear test at the request of the United States, Japan, Britain, France and South Korea, but Russia is pushing for talks rather than more sanctions.
North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, which it said was an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile.
The UN will meet on Monday morning, the US mission to the United Nations said.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea in early July over its two intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
The sanctions were said to have the potential to cut the Asian state's $US3 billion ($A3.8 billion) annual export revenue by a third, but Russia questions their effectiveness.
"The imposed sanctions have not created any positive outcome. On the contrary, the situation leaves something to be desired," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.
Peskov said it was premature to speak of "specific modalities" of Russia's possible actions ahead of new talks on North Korea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is now in China for a summit of BRICS leaders, discussed the bomb test with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier on Sunday. Both leaders expressed their deep concerns about security on the Korean Peninsula.
Later on Sunday Putin also had a phone call with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and they both condemned Pyongyang's bomb test, Peskov said.
"Vladimir Putin said the international society should avoid being overwhelmed by emotion, it should act calmly and prudently. He also highlighted that a complex settlement of the nuclear and other problems of the Korean Peninsula could be achieved solely by political and diplomatic means," Peskov said.
