The development of targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has succeeded in altering the course of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). However, a number of patients have failed to respond or experienced disease relapse following TKI treatment. Proviral integration site for moloney murine leukemia virus‑1 (PIM‑1) is a serine/threonine kinase that participates in regulating apoptosis, cell cycle, signal transduction and transcriptional pathways, which are associated with tumor progression, and poor prognosis. SMI‑4a is a selective PIM‑1 kinase inhibitor that inhibits PIM‑1 kinase activity in vivo and in vitro. The present study aimed to explore the mechanism underlying the antitumor effect of SMI‑4a in K562 and imatinib‑resistant K562 (K562/G) cell lines. It was demonstrated that SMI‑4a inhibited the proliferation of K562 and K562/G cells using a WST‑8 assay. The Annexin V‑propidium iodide assay demonstrated that SMI‑4a induced apoptosis of K562 and K562/G cells in a dose‑, and time‑dependent manner. Furthermore, Hoechst 33342 staining was used to verify the apoptosis rate. The clone formation assay revealed that SMI‑4a significantly inhibited the colony formation capacity of K562 and K562/G cells. Western blot analysis demonstrated that SMI‑4a decreased phosphorylated (p)‑Ser9‑glycogen synthase kinase (GSK) 3β/pGSK3β and inhibited the translocation of β‑catenin. In addition, the downstream gene expression of apoptosis regulator Bax and poly(ADP‑ribose) polymerase‑1 was upregulated, and apoptosis regulator Bcl‑2 and Myc proto‑oncogene protein expression levels were downregulated. Immunofluorescence results demonstrated changes in the expression level of β‑catenin in the plasma and nucleus. The results of the present study suggest that SMI‑4a is an effective drug to use in combination with current chemotherapeutics for the treatment of imatinib-resistant CML.