North Korea’s nuclear test this month was its fifth in only 10 years, but technological advances by the isolated communist state have former diplomats concerned that the latest blast is anything but more of the same.

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Part of the challenge with China, however, is that it doesn’t agree with the U.S. on what the main problem is, said Yun Sun, an expert on Chinese foreign policy who works as senior associate with the East Asia Program at the Henry L. Stimson Center.

She said the U.S. sees North Korean nukes as the primary threat in the region, but China is more afraid of having U.S. troops on its border if the North Korean state were to collapse and, presumably, end up folded into a unified Korea that’s dominated by the South.

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