N Korea threat is serious, real: Shorten

Labor leader Bill Shorten says the international community needs to work together to increase pressure on North Korea.

Bill Shorten and Penny Wong have visited the Korean demilitarised zone. (AAP)

Bill Shorten warns the threat of conflict on the Korean peninsula is serious and real following a visit to the demilitarised zone.

The Labor leader said his tour with opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong on Tuesday emphasised how the area was still trapped in the arguments of more than 60 years ago.

"The conflict and the risk to conflict is serious and it is real and we need to do everything we can diplomatically to make sure that the United Nations Security Council resolutions have their effect," he told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Mr Shorten said his tour of South Korea and Japan was about showing both sides of Australian politics supported the two countries in the face of actions by Pyongyang.

The next step to ramp up pressure on the regime was to try to stop the export of North Korean textiles into China and the movement of guest labourers, as well as further sanctions on oil and petrol, he said.

"I think that will focus the North Korean regime to understand there are consequences," Mr Shorten said.

He again refused to be drawn on US President Donald Trump's recent language about North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un, insisting unified international action was the focus.