S Korea president urges tough China response to North's test

South Korean troops fired at a suspected North Korean drone that crossed the border yesterday, as President Park Geun-Hye pushed China to back harsh sanctions on Pyongyang over its latest nuclear test.

The defence ministry said the drone effected a brief incursion, but swiftly returned to the North side when South Korean troops fired a series of warning shots.

Any shooting on what is probably the world's most heavily militarised border is rare and a cause for concern, though there was no exchange of fire and the incident showed no immediate sign of escalating.

But it fuelled already heightened tensions on the frontier, where the South has been blasting high-decibel propaganda broadcasts into the North as punishment for last week's nuclear test.

Earlier in the day, President Park told an annual press conference that the nuclear test was an "unacceptable challenge" to global security that had to be met with unprecedented severity.

"The international community's counter measures... must differ from the past," Park said.

As well as working with the United Nations to adopt the "strongest" resolution to penalise North Korea, Seoul would also discuss additional "punitive sanctions" with the United States and its allies, she added.

The president stressed that China, North Korea's main ally and economic benefactor, would be critical in securing an effective Security Council resolution.

Noting Beijing's public admonishments of Kim's regime over its nuclear programme, Park said it was time for China to move beyond rhetoric.

"I believe China is aware that if its strong determination is not put into actual, necessary actions, we will not be able to prevent a fifth or sixth nuclear test," she said.

Her stance was backed hours later by a meeting in Seoul of the US, Japanese and South Korean special envoys on North Korea.

"I think the Chinese will agree with us that the only way we can send a clear message to Pyongyang is to adopt strong international measures," the US envoy Sung Kim told reporters after the talks.

But Park's entreaties went largely ignored at the regular foreign ministry briefing in Beijing, where the spokesman reiterated China's standard line about working with all interested parties to resolve the issue and achieve a "durable pace" in the region.

North Korea says last week's test was of a miniaturised hydrogen bomb -- a claim dismissed by experts who argue the yield was far too low for a full-fledged thermonuclear device.

Whatever the nature of the device, it was North Korea's fourth nuclear test since 2006, and further evidence of Pyongyang's intention to continue developing its nuclear weapons capability in the face of international censure.

"An additional North Korean provocation can take place any time," Park said, adding that Seoul and Washington were discussing the transfer of further US "strategic assets" to the peninsula.