By Amy Remeikis and David Wroe
US President Donald Trump has promised "all options are on the table" when it comes to dealing with North Korea, but Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has placed Australia's faith in economic sanctions bringing the rogue state back under control.
Ms Bishop said the world needed to give time for the "toughest set of sanctions" ever imposed on North Korea to take effect, after the UN Security Council, including China and Russia, agreed earlier this month to clamp down on the nation's economy in a bid to halt its weapons program.
The sanctions hinge on China, which has the closest relationship with the secretive state, following through on its commitment to halt work visas and stop purchasing North Korean commodities, to have substantial effect.
"This will have a significant impact on North Korea's economy and its ability to fund these illegal weapons programs," Ms Bishop told Sky News on Wednesday morning.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is in New York to attend the United Nations.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
"If they are applied universally then North Korea will feel the brunt of these sanctions and realise a penalty has to be paid for its illegal and provocative behaviour."
China and Russia told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council they stood ready to play their role.
But they both warned against military action and spoke against the deployment of the anti-ballistic missile system THAAD by the US and South Korea and were united in opposition to countries, including Australia, imposing unilateral sanctions on top of the agreed UN Security Council resolutions.
"China also urges countries to stop resorting to their domestic legislations [by] imposing unilateral sanctions on individuals and entities in other countries," China's ambassador to the UN Liu Jieyi said.
"The realisation of de-nuclearisation of the peninsula and its lasting peace and security is in the interest of all parties."
Australia has used its Autonomous Sanctions Act to impose its own sanctions, as have the US, South Korea and Japan on people and corporations it believes is assisting Pyongyang in its nuclear quest.
Ms Bishop said military options remained on the table, although she had been assured by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that all political, diplomatic and economic options would be exhausted before further action was taken.
North Korea escalated tensions on Tuesday morning by firing a ballistic missile over northern Japan, after previously threatening to fire at the US-held territory of Guam earlier this month.
Mr Trump vowed "fire and fury" would meet any attack, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirming Australia would assist its American ally if the ANZUS treaty was invoked.
In response to Tuesday's launch, Mr Trump said the world had received North Korea's latest message of "contempt for its neighbours, for all members of the United Nations and for minimal standards of acceptable international behaviour … loud and clear."
"All options are on the table," Mr Trump said in a statement.
That included a military response, Ms Bishop said.
"Previous administrations have also embraced the 'all options on the table' wording and that has included military options, so previous United States presidents have embraced the idea of military options if necessary," she said.
"President Trump's words are more robust, more forthright, but nevertheless this has been longstanding US policy.
"But first, as Secretary of State Tillerson has assured me, the United States wants to explore every diplomatic, economic, political avenue that it can."
North Korea's latest actions have also sparked fears Japan could start its own nuclear weapons program, a suggestion Ms Bishop said was unlikely as long as the US provided a nuclear deterrence to its ally.
"It is hard to envisage a scenario where Japan develops nuclear weapons while the United States maintains its long-standing policy of extended deterrence on behalf of its allies in Asia," Ms Bishop said. She added that Japan had been "a leading advocate against nuclear weapons for many decades and is a strong supporter of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty."
As for Australia's risk, Ms Bishop said it had been assessed and Australia "is not a primary target".
"Defence does assess the risk of Australia being the target of one of Pyongyang's missiles as low," she told ABC's 7.30 on Tuesday night.
"However, we are deeply concerned at this recent, very provocative act on the part of North Korea and so we are spending a lot of time talking with our friends and allies to determine the extent of the risk posed by North Korea."