Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says rogue state North Korea is feeling the pressure of sanctions and Beijing's cooling support, and could be forced back to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.
Speaking a day after Pyongyang announced it had made progress in ballistic nuclear missile technology, Ms Bishop told Fairfax Media that while such provocations always needed to be taken seriously, there were signs the hermit nation was feeling ever more isolated and desperate.
"It's interesting that North Korea is now seeking to engage with other countries ... What it indicates is that the sanctions and China's cooling of its relations with North Korea are having an impact now," she said in the South Korean capital Seoul where she is holding meetings with senior officials.
"That may well put North Korea in a position where it's prepared to return to the negotiating table and prepared to resume the six-party talks."
Ms Bishop held talks on Thursday with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, discussing the ongoing threat posed by the erratic regime of Kim Jong-un in the north. On Friday she will attend a meeting of the MIKTA group of nations – Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey and Australia.
Issues including regional security, trade and terrorism will be on the agenda.
The "six-party talks" between North Korea, South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan over Pyongyang's program to develop nuclear weapons in breach of UN resolutions have been stalled since 2009. The country is the subject of some of the world's toughest international sanctions over the program.
China, long North Korea's closest and by far its most powerful ally, has increasingly shown irritation over its unpredictable neighbour's behaviour.
Lately that has included claims of a successful test launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine – though there is some scepticism about the veracity of the claims – and this week's claim that it could make warheads small enough to fit on the end of a missile.
Mr Kim has also been purging some of the top figures in his government. Some reports say he recently had his top defence official executed with anti-aircraft guns.
But lately Pyongyang has been reaching out to other countries for diplomatic support, notably Russia, though Ms Bishop said that "they're not having much joy".
On top of the sanctions and China's growing distance, Ms Bishop said North Korea was also worried that Washington had "made its peace" with Cuba and was negotiating with Iran and "that would leave North Korea even more isolated".
She stressed however that "Australia always takes seriously North Korea's erratic behaviour and its latest provocations are of course a cause for concern".
Japan has recently raised eyebrows by easing some of its sanctions on Pyongyang in pursuit of a breakthrough in the long-festering sore of alleged kidnappings of Japanese citizens by North Korea during the Cold War.
But Ms Bishop defended this move by Tokyo and denied it broke international unity on the sanctions, saying "that's a matter for Japan".
"I know how sensitive the kidnapping issue is in Japan. The people of Japan expect to see some progress on that, they expect to see some breakthrough. I'm sure that the Japanese leadership are seeking to gain some sort of advance in the whole issue of kidnappings."
