The world has learned through North Korea’s fourth nuclear test that it will not give up its weapons of mass destruction.

Another thing the world should learn is that it now needs a new strategy entirely different from the past, with the numerous endeavors -- not least the 1994 Agreed Framework, six-party talks and international sanctions led by no fewer than seven resolutions of the U.N. Security Council -- having clearly failed.

Given the rapid progress of the North’s nuclear and missile capabilities, the new strategy should be devised as soon as possible. It should, of course, include sanctions against the Pyongyang regime.  

As we see it, sanctions imposed on Pyongyang, some of which are still in place, have had little effect. One reason is that North Korea is the world’s most isolated state and therefore less vulnerable to outside influence than any other country.

But a bigger problem with the sanctions imposed so far was that they were not as tough as they needed to be. It is here that the role of China -- the only remaining communist ally of North Korea and its main patron despite the recent ups and downs in their bilateral relations -- comes into focus.

As one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China has always stood in the way of levying strong sanctions against North Korea’s missile and nuclear provocations.

As a result, the sanctions watered down by the Chinese, and to a lesser extent by Russia, could not be as effective as those imposed on countries like Iran. Moreover, China continues to be the major supplier of fuel and food for North Korea.

Given this backdrop, the U.S. publicly criticized China for its stance after the latest nuclear test, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry saying he told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that its approach to North Korea had failed.

“Now, China had a particular approach that it wanted to make, and we agreed and respected to give them the space to be able to implement that, but today in my conversation with the Chinese, I made it very clear that has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual,” Kerry said.

But it does not seem that Chinese officials will easily agree with such a view. In a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Wang only repeated his country’s three principles on the North Korean nuke issue -- denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, peace and stability and dialogue.

Wu Dawei, Beijing’s special representative to Korean affairs, also echoed his government’s position that it would cooperate if the U.N. Security Council takes “appropriate” actions.

These indicate that Beijing will oppose strong sanctions on Pyongyang. This is far different from the position of the other countries like South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, which are united in seeking strongest-yet sanctions against the North.

Under these circumstances, what the world -- especially the three allies -- needs to do is convince China that it would lose a lot more by allowing a nuclear-armed North Korea than what it would lose in relations with Pyongyang for pushing it to abandon nukes. Reinforcement of the U.S. military power in the region, the last thing China wants to see, could be one such step.