That link provides a very good summary of the situation. And I didn't notice anything in the article was counterdicting anything I said.
From the article:

"The U.S., along with South Korea and Japan, had insisted that, since this issue was important to regional and international security, any discussions should be in a multilateral forum.
North Korea however insisted that this was strictly a bilateral issue, and therefore would only agree to discussions between itself and the United States. Although brokering these talks was a significant achievement for China, the country's leadership was wary of putting too much importance in these initial discussions. China's main purpose for brokering talks was clearly to alleviate the tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. As stated by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, China's hope was that the talks would help Washington and Pyongyang "understand each other's position more clearly and ease the current tense situation."

The Beijing talks in April 2003 ended a day early after the North Korean delegation informed the U.S. delegation that the DPRK already possessed nuclear weapons (a claim that U.S. intelligence reports had been making for years.) According to U.S. reports from the meeting, North Korean delegation head Li Gun made this statement to Assistant Secretary James Kelly informally during a break. This admission was seen widely as a slap in the face to the Chinese hosts."

[And continuing with some caps added]: "AS A RESULT, Beijing has been more open to dealing with the issue of North Korea in a multilateral forum and has moved closer to the United States, and its allies in the region, South Korea and Japan, on formulating a policy to defuse the crisis.
In mid-June 2003, Foreign Ministers from Japan, China, and South Korea held trilateral talks which included on its agenda the North Korean nuclear. At this meeting, the three states agreed that multi-party talks were necessary to resolve the crisis, the FIRST time that China had agreed to this type of multilateral format. "