North Korea will be a key topic when U.S. President Barack Obama holds a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, the White House said Wednesday.

"There obviously are a wide range of issues that the United States and China are able to effectively coordinate on," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. "The best example of that recently is that, you know, our efforts to work together to isolate and apply further pressure on the North Korean regime for their destabilizing activities on the Korean Peninsula."

Other issues on the agenda include cyber security and human rights, he said.

The two leaders are scheduled to meet one-on-one Thursday on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit.

The meeting comes as Pyongyang has been ratcheting up tensions with threats of attacks, claims of breakthroughs in its nuclear and missile programs and a series of missile firings into the sea.

China is considered the only country with any meaningful influence over Pyongyang as the main provider of food and energy aid as well as diplomatic protection for the impoverished, provocative regime.

But Beijing has often showed reluctance to use that influence as it fears that pushing Pyongyang too hard could lead to its collapse, an influx of refugees into the country, instability on its border and ultimately, the emergence of a pro-U.S. nation on its doorstep.

After the North's fourth nuclear test in January, Beijing initially balked at imposing harsh sanctions on Pyongyang, but later signed on to the toughest-ever package of U.N. Security Council sanctions after the North's test of long-range missile technology in February. (Yonhap)