Mr Mattis said on Friday that there had been no change in US policy towards protecting South Korea, in the face of missile and nuclear threats from the reclusive North, after a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
And he stressed that the goal is not war with North Korea – despite Donald Trump’s previous threat to “totally destroy” the hermit state.
Tensions have flared on the Korean peninsula as the US President and the North’s ruler Kim Jong-Un continue to trade insults and threaten war that has sparked global alarm.
But Mr Mattis, who visited the tense Demilitarised Zone during a trip to South Korea, said the US was committed to a “diplomatic solution”.
He said: ”As the US Secretary of State Tillerson made clear, our goal is not war but rather the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.”
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And stressed he and his South Korean counterpart Song Young-Moo had “made clear our mutual commitment to a diplomatic solution to address North Korea’s reckless, outlaw behaviour”.
Mr Mattis is to hold annual defence talks with Song on Saturday during the two-day trip, which comes ahead of a planned trip by the US president to Asia next month.
Mr Trump is set to visit Seoul from November 7 to 8 with all eyes on his message to the North and Kim.
The isolated North carried out its sixth nuclear test last month and has launched several missiles in recent months potentially capable of reaching the mainland of its “imperialist enemy” the US.
The moves, staged in violation of UN resolutions banning the North from any use of atomic and ballistic technology, prompted new US-led UN sanctions against the impoverished state.
Pyongyang reacted angrily to new sanctions, and Mr Trump’s recent remark that “only one thing will work” with the North fuelled concerns of a potential conflict.
But even some of the White House’s advisers say US military options are limited when Pyongyang could launch an artillery barrage on the South Korean capital Seoul – only 50 kilometres from the border and home to 10 million people.
The North says its atomic weapons are a “treasured sword” to protect itself from potential invasion by the US.