Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has again urged China to pressure North Korea to end its nuclear missile testing as the rogue state launched another rocket on Sunday.
Ms Bishop says North Korea is going down the path of being a global risk to security, and economic sanctions, diplomacy and dialogue are needed.
"While ever North Korea continues these dangerous, risky, provocative acts ... we have an unstable region. That is not acceptable," she told reporters in Cairns on Sunday.
The missile flew 700 km and reached an altitude of more than 2000 km, according to officials in South Korea and Japan, further and higher than an intermediate-range missile North Korea successfully tested in February from the same region of Kusong, northwest of its capital, Pyongyang.
The US Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was "not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile".
Watch: North Korea lashes out at US
Japan said the missile could be of a new type.
North Korea is widely believed to be developing an intercontinental missile tipped with a nuclear weapon that is capable of reaching the United States.
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Ms Bishop said that concern meant North Korea must be brought into line as soon as possible.
"If it were ever to gain that capability, it presents the most serious threats to global security we have seen in a long time," she said.
"That's why we've been calling on China as a key player in this matter to increase the economic pressure on North Korea to make it change its behaviour."
She said there was no comfort in the fact that some of the tests failed because on each occasion they were gaining more information to improve.
Defence Minister Marise Payne said Australia was working with South Korea, Japan, the US and other allies to press upon the North Korea continuing on this course of action is "not sustainable".
"It is absolutely opposed by the broad international community," Senator Payne told reporters in Melbourne earlier on Sunday.
She called on all nations to redouble their efforts to impose the sanctions agreed through the UN process on Pyongyang and singled out China as one of the nations that have significant influence over the state.
Ms Bishop last month angered North Korea with her talk of sanctions.
The state-run KCNA news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman accusing her of "spouting a string of rubbish against the DPRK over its entirely just steps for self-defence".
"If Australia persists in following the US moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK and remains a shock brigade of the US master, this will be a suicidal act of coming within the range of the nuclear strike of the strategic force of the DPRK."
