The United States said China had agreed to help rid North Korea of its nuclear capability by peaceful means.
However, Beijing made no specific commitment in public to pressure its long-time ally to change its ways.
Secretary of State John Kerry met China's top leaders in a bid to persuade them to push North Korea to scale back its belligerence and, eventually, return to nuclear talks.
Visiting Beijing for the first time as secretary of state, Mr Kerry has made no secret of his desire to see China take a more active stance towards North Korea
In recent weeks, the isolated state has threatened nuclear war against the United States and South Korea.
Mr Kerry and China's top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, said both countries supported the goal of denuclearising the Korean peninsula.
"We are able, the United States and China, to underscore our joint commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner," Mr Kerry told reporters.
But North Korea has repeatedly said it will not abandon nuclear weapons which it described yesterday as its "treasured" guarantor of security.
Mr Yang said China's stance on maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula was clear and consistent, repeating phrasing used by the Foreign Ministry since the crisis began.
The US and its allies believe the North violated the 2005 aid-for-denuclearisation deal by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 and pursuing a uranium enrichment programme that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to its plutonium-based programme.
Six-party aid-for-disarmament talks, involving the two Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and host China, collapsed in 2008 when the North walked away from the deal.
Mr Kerry declined to comment on what specifically China may do to push for a peaceful solution on North Korea, saying only that they had discussed all possibilities.
