Kim Jong-un’s regime forced a hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) on Sunday, warning the US faced its “greatest disaster” if it tried to retaliate.
The threat has led to worldwide condemnation, with US President Donald Trump threatening the regime with military action and South Korea carrying out a missile drill simulating an attack to “wipe out” its neighbour.
China condemned North Korea’s test and urged Kim Jong-un to stop its “wrong actions” and return to talks.
But Beijing raised doubts economic sanctions will have any effect on its trading partner and has criticised other nations who say the problem is one the Chinese must sort out.
China’s foreign ministry has repeatedly hit back at calls to do more to stop North Korea’s warmongering, saying pushing for dialogue was an equally integral part of the UN resolutions, and escalating sanctions had not worked so far.
Former diplomat Ruan Zongze, from the China Institute of International Studies, said: “The United States has to play its own role and should not be blindly putting pressure on China to try and squeeze North Korea.”
Last week, the state-run Global Times newspaper hit out at British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull for saying China needed to do more.
And there is growing concern China will not back tougher sanctions over fears the North Korean regime will be destabilised.
Beijing fears cutting North Korea off could lead to its collapse, unleashing a wave of refugees into northeast China.
China, which supplies most of North Korea’s crude oil, no longer reports its shipments to the country, but is thought to supply it with roughly 500,000 tonnes of crude oil annually. It also exports more than 200,000 tonnes of oil products, according to the UN.
That means, although China might agree to tighten restrictions on textiles and clothing, it would be resistant to cutting off the oil supply.
A Chinese foreign official told the Financial Times: “This nuclear test is one of the few things that might trigger a cut-off of oil supplies, but we are still very reluctant to do so.”
And shared military sacrifices in the Korean War of 1950-53 means the Chinese army would be resistant to hitting the nation with force.
South Korea’s defence ministry warned on Monday there were signs North Korea planned more ballistic missile launches, possibly including an intercontinental weapon.
Chang Kyung-soo, a defence ministry official told a parliament hearing: “We have continued to see signs of possibly more ballistic missile launches.
“We also forecast North Korea could fire an intercontinental ballistic missile.”