North Korea will reportedly shutter its embassy in Australia at the end of the month due to financial problems.

A diplomatic source in Seoul said Friday that Pyongyang's embassy in Canberra will be forced to close around the end of January due to financial pressure.

Senior embassy official Pak Myong-guk said he'll explain the shutdown in an interview with a Korean-language newspaper in Australia next week.

Pak reportedly claimed that Canberra under former President John Howard had taken a series of measures beginning in 2003 to restrain the North's diplomatic activities and remittances in connection with the nuclear issue.