…As Trump voices disappointment over North Korea’s fresh missile site activity***
The U.S. trade deficit surged to a 10-year high in 2018,
with the politically sensitive shortfall with China hitting a record peak,
despite the Trump administration slapping tariffs on a range of imported goods
in an effort to shrink the gap.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that an 18.8
percent jump in the trade deficit in December had contributed to the $621
billion shortfall last year. The 2018 deficit was the largest since 2008 and
followed a $552.3 billion gap in 2017.
The trade deficit has deteriorated despite the White House’s
protectionist trade policy, which President Donald Trump said is needed to
shield U.S. manufacturers from what he says is unfair foreign competition.
The United States last year imposed tariffs on $250 billion
worth of goods imported from China, with Beijing hitting back with duties on
$110 billion worth of American products, including soybeans and other
commodities. Trump has delayed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports
as negotiations to resolve the eight-month trade war continue.
The United States has also slapped duties on imported steel,
aluminum, solar panels and washing machines. The goods trade deficit with China
increased 11.6 percent to an all-time high of $419.2 billion in 2018. The
United States had record imports from 60 countries in 2018, led by China,
Mexico and Germany. Imports of good hit a record $2.6 trillion last year.
The December trade deficit of $59.8 billion was the largest
since October 2008 and overshot economists’ expectations for a $57.9 billion
shortfall, as exports fell for a third straight month and imports rebounded.
The release of the December report was delayed by a 35-day
partial shutdown of the government that ended on Jan. 25.
When adjusted for inflation, the goods trade deficit surged
$10 billion to a record $91.6 billion in December. The jump in the so-called
real goods trade deficit suggests that trade was probably a bigger drag on
fourth-quarter gross domestic product than initially estimated by the
government.
Other data on Wednesday suggested some slowing in the labor
market, though the pace of job gains remains more than enough to drive the
unemployment rate down. The ADP National Employment Report showed private
payrolls increased by 183,000 in February after surging 300,000 in January. The
ADP report, which is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics, was published
ahead of the government’s more comprehensive employment report for February scheduled
for release on Friday.
In the meantime, fresh reports of missile-related activity in North Korea have emerged, hours after Donald Trump said he would be “very disappointed” if separate reports about a rocket launch site being rebuilt proved to be true.
On Thursday, South Korean media reported cargo vehicles had
been spotted recently moving around a factory at Sanumdong in Pyongyang. The
site is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) plant that produced the
first such missiles capable of reaching the US, the JoongAng Ilbo and Donga
Ilbo newspapers reported, citing lawmakers briefed by the National Intelligence
Service.
Spy chief Suh Hoon said he viewed the activity as
missile-related, according to the JoongAng Ilbo.
Earlier, two US thinktanks and South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that work was under way to restore part of the Sohae satellite launching station even as Trump met Kim in Hanoi last week for their second summit.
“I would be very disappointed if that were happening,” Trump said in the Oval Office, when asked if North Korea was breaking a promise.
“Well, we’re going to see. It’s too early to see … It’s a very
early report. We’re the ones that put it out. But I would be very, very
disappointed in Chairman Kim, and I don’t think I will be, but we’ll see what
happens. We’ll take a look. It’ll ultimately get solved.”
The White House did not immediately respond when asked what
Trump meant by “we’re the ones that put it out”, but US and South Korean
intelligence agencies cooperate very closely.
North Korea began work to dismantle a missile engine test
stand at Sohae in 2018 after pledging to do so in a first summit with Trump in
June.
A second summit between Trump and Kim broke down last week
in Hanoi over differences on how far North Korea was willing to limit its
nuclear programme and the degree of US willingness to ease sanctions.
“We have a very nasty problem there. We have to solve a
problem,” Trump said, while adding in apparent reference to Kim: “The
relationship is good.”
Trump, eager for a big foreign policy win on North Korea
that has eluded predecessors for decades, has repeatedly stressed his good relationship
with Kim. In 2018 he went as far as saying they “fell in love” but the bonhomie
has failed so far to bridge the wide gap between the two sides.
Satellite images seen by 38 North, a Washington-based North
Korea project, showed that structures on the Sohae launch pad had been rebuilt
sometime between 16 February and 2 March, Jenny Town, managing editor at the
project and an analyst at the Stimson Center think tank, told Reuters.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies thinktank
released a separate report, also citing satellite imagery, that concluded North
Korea was “pursuing a rapid rebuilding” at the site.
News of the work at Sohae was first reported by Yonhap,
which quoted South Korean lawmakers on details of a briefing by the country’s
National Intelligence Service.
On Wednesday, Yonhap quoted South Korea’s Suh Hoon, chief of the National Intelligence Service, as saying uranium enrichment facilities at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex continued to operate normally during the Vietnam summit.
Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, warned on
Tuesday that new sanctions could be introduced if North Korea did not scrap its
nuclear weapons program.
Some analysts have interpreted the work at Sohae as an
attempt by North Korea to put pressure on Washington to agree to a deal rather
than as a definite move to resume tests there.
Democrat Ed Markey, ranking member of the Senate east Asia
subcommittee, said: “North Korea’s apparent work at this launch site raises the
troubling possibility that yet again Kim Jong-un is more interested in
garnering concessions than conducting serious, good-faith efforts to
denuclearise,” the senator said.
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Monday that he hoped to send a delegation to North Korea in the coming weeks but had “no commitment yet”.
NBC with additional report from Guardian UK
