Security, trade challenge Trump on first Asia trip

TOKYO (AP) — Security and trade will loom large during US President Donald Trump’s first official visit to Asia, which begins tommorrow in Japan.

North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs are likely to be the issue dominating the first part of his trip, which includes stops in South Korea’s capital and Beijing as well as Tokyo.

Trade will figure throughout, both in North Asia and at his stops in Southeast Asia for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders’ meeting in the Philippines.

For North Korea, the more blustery Trump comes off during his visit, the better.

It has insisted that the US president’s threatening comments and tweets reveal a belligerence that has driven decades of Washington’s policy on North Korea and proves the North’s decision to develop nuclear weapons was a defensive measure and not only justified but a laudable example of resistance.

North Korea’s state-run media have been hitting that argument hard over the past week.

“It has become clearer who is a harasser of peace,” the ruling party’s newspaper said an editorial Wednesday.

“Owing to the US, there is constant danger of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula and peace and security is always at peril.”

The editorial added that if North Korea hadn’t developed nuclear weapons, its “sovereignty and national dignity would have been mercilessly violated” by the United States.

North Korea has long said that but also clearly believes Trump’s unfiltered words have opened a way for it to gain sympathy among potential critics of Trump in the US media, academic circles and foreign governments.

An added bonus for North Korea would be discord during the visit on regional trade or military burden-sharing issues with Japan and South Korea. Or any problems with China.

At a background briefing on the trip, a senior US administration official said the White House believes the Chinese have done a great deal and “the US is working more closely with China on the North Korea problem than ever,” but added it wants more out of Beijing.

North Korea will be weighing the nuances of those meetings particularly closely.

Trump has often named Asia, and China and Japan in particular, as a source of American economic woes.

A persisting US trade deficit with most Asian countries and the president’s frequent threats to impose sanctions or raise tariffs on exports from the region make trade a fraught issue.