SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States warned China that it would redeploy forces in Asia if it failed to rein in North Korea, an Obama administration official said on Friday, as Pyongyang bowed to Seoul's demands for crisis talks. U.S. President Barack Obama's warning had persuaded China -- the North's main diplomatic and economic backer -- to take a harder line toward Pyongyang, and opened the door to a resumption of inter-Korean talks, possibly next month, the official said, confirming a report in The New York Times.
North Korea accepted the South's conditions for talks on Thursday, marking a major breakthrough in the crisis on the peninsula. Such dialogue could clear the way for the resumption of the six-party aid-for-disarmament talks.
Obama warned his Chinese counterpart President Hu Jintao that if Beijing did not step up pressure on North Korea, Washington would redeploy its forces in Asia to protect itself from a potential North Korean strike on U.S. soil.
Obama first made the warning in a phone call to Hu last month, and repeated it over a private dinner at the White House on Tuesday, the U.S. administration official said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that Pyongyang was becoming a direct threat to the United States and could develop inter-continental ballistic missiles within five years.
Obama said the same at a press conference with Hu on Wednesday.
Wang Dong of Peking University's School of International Studies said Washington's reported warning to Beijing was a slap in the face for the Chinese leader, who has urged the two Koreas to resolve their differences through dialogue.
"Playing tough like this, it might just backfire, I'm afraid," Wang said. "If this article represents the real thinking by American leaders, the danger of war on the peninsula can never be dismissed."
"China has its own strategy in trying to influence North Korea. It wants to find the least costly path to solve this crisis."
The proposed talks would be the first contact between the two Koreas since a deadly artillery attack on the South in November sharply raised tensions on the divided peninsula.
Pyongyang bowed to Seoul's demands that talks specifically address that attack and the sinking of a South Korean warship last March, but made no mention of talks on denuclearization -- the central component of six-party meetings.
Washington and Tokyo have cautiously welcomed the Korean talks, but there has been no comment from Beijing.
Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the talks, saying they marked progress but Seoul's demands for an apology for the attacks could prove difficult for Pyongyang to accept.
"There must be a paradigm shift from both North and South Korea for the sake of stability in the region," said Ahn Yinhay of Korea University. "Given the favorable relationship between China and the United States, now is the right time."
