US Secretary of State John Kerry says China is “very serious” about a pledge to help resolve tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme.
The US and China earlier said they were committed to the “denuclearisation” of the Korean peninsula.
Mr Kerry said the two sides would hold further meetings “to bear down very quickly” on how to achieve that goal.
North Korea has recently threatened attacks against South Korea and the US, amid a flurry of bellicose statements.
Speculation has also built that the North was preparing a missile launch, following reports that it had moved at least two Musudan ballistic missiles to its east coast.
Mr Kerry has said any such launch would be a “huge mistake”.
After a day of meetings in Beijing with President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese officials on Saturday, he said both governments called on North Korea “to refrain from any provocative steps and that obviously refers to any future missile shoot”.
Mr Kerry, who is on a four-day tour of Asia, continues to Japan on Sunday.
