As Washington pauses its “maximum pressure” campaign while negotiating for the denuclearization of North Korea, it is essential to push the international community to continue pre-summit sanctions on Pyongyang, said a U.S. congressman. 

“We can keep applying pressure on business entities around the world that you either choose to do business with the United States or you do business with North Korea, but you can’t do it with both,” said Representative Ted Yoho, a Florida Republican.

“The goal is to get all nations to abide” by sanctions that were put in place, Yoho said. 

Yoho, as chairman of Asia and the Pacific panel of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has been working with the Treasury Department to get Hong Kong to comply with pre-existing sanctions by cracking down on North Korean shell companies that launder money for Pyongyang. U.S. officials in Hong Kong told Yoho the Hong Kong government “has really cracked down on these secondary businesses. And they’re making it a lot harder for them to be covert, so they’ve got to be a lot more transparent.” 

Hong Kong, an Asian financial hub, has been linked to Pyongyang’s effort to evade sanctions. The United Nations blacklisted companies based in Hong Kong in March. 

The Hong Kong government tightened anti-money-laundering efforts on June 22 to close loopholes in its sanctions law to comply with U.N. resolutions adopted since March 2016.

But the detente between Washington and Pyongyang since the summit has led some nations to consider easing sanctions on North Korea imposed before the June 12 Singapore summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in over the weekend to discuss infrastructure projects, including laying a pipeline from Russia to South Korea through North Korea to carry Russian natural gas to South Korea, and a railroad connecting Russia and South Korea via North Korea. The projects would pay hefty transit fees to North Korea.  

According to Yoho, however, discussions on economic cooperation as Washington seeks denuclearization of the North could work in Washington’s favor by incentivizing Pyongyang to improve its economy in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons. 

“We can’t be distracted by Russia offering something [to North Korea] or South Korea saying, ‘All right, we’re going to open up trade,’ because it takes incentive off Kim Jong Un to negotiate,” said Yoho. “And I don’t think the U.S. wants to be a part of that.” 

Yoho said maximum pressure would be reinstated if there was an indication that North Korea was not following through on its commitment to denuclearize. 

“If Kim Jong Un goes in a negative direction, launches a missile, or isn’t forthright in denuclearization or commitment to do that, then there will be more pressure put on them,” said Yoho. 

According to Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official and current senior vice president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Trump has hit “pause” for the time being on the maximum pressure campaign “for a short-term observation period.” 

During this breather that gives Pyongyang time to follow through on its commitment to denuclearize, Washington will “attempt to use more of a carrot than a stick, at least in the short term,” said Schanzer.

If Pyongyang does spurn the U.S. as it has done in the past, Washington can impose significant additional sanctions, Schanzer said, adding that this includes cracking down on Chinese banks that deal with the Kim regime, North Korea’s illegal ship-to-ship transfers at sea, and North Koreans working abroad. 

“I think what’s important to remember here is that the United States has offered nothing that’s irreversible,” said Schanzer. “Any pause put in the maximum pressure campaign can be put back in play. Even the announcement of the halt to certain [military] exercises on the peninsula can be reinstated. There’s nothing that the U.S. has given up permanently.” 

Schanzer agreed with Yoho that it is crucial for the U.S. to maintain pressure on the international community to enforce existing sanctions on North Korea, especially by clamping down on “illicit financial activities.” He said he felt that Washington should address this in any nuclear deal.

“What needs to be done here, if we were to pursue a nuclear deal with North Korea, it needs to be beyond nukes,” said Schanzer. “It will need to address illicit financial practices that North Korea engages in. … The entire international community should be brought in to ensure that North Korea is complying with whatever structures are put in place.” 

Christy Lee contributed to this report, which originated from the VOA Korean service.
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Two major auto trade groups on Wednesday warned the Trump administration that imposing up to 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles would cost hundreds of thousands of auto jobs, dramatically hike prices on vehicles and threaten industry spending on self-driving cars.

A coalition representing major foreign automakers including Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen AG, BMW AG and Hyundai Motor Co, said the tariffs would harm automakers and U.S. consumers. The administration in May launched an investigation into whether imported vehicles pose a national security threat and President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to quickly impose tariffs.

“The greatest threat to the U.S. automotive industry at this time is the possibility the administration will impose duties on imports in connection with this investigation,” wrote the Association of Global Automakers representing major foreign automakers. “Such duties would raise prices for American consumers, limit their choices, and suppress sales and U.S. production of vehicles.”

The group added: “Rather than creating jobs, these tariffs would result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of American jobs producing and selling cars, SUVs, trucks and auto parts.”

On Friday, Trump threatened to impose a 20 percent tariff on all imports of EU-assembled cars. On Tuesday, Trump said tariffs are coming soon.

“We are finishing our study of Tariffs on cars from the E.U. in that they have long taken advantage of the U.S. in the form of Trade Barriers and Tariffs. In the end it will all even out — and it won’t take very long!” Trump tweeted.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, representing General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Daimler AG , Toyota and others, urged the administration in separate comments filed Wednesday not to go forward.

“We believe the resulting impact of tariffs on imported vehicles and vehicle components will ultimately harm U.S. economic security and weaken our national security,” the group wrote, calling the tariffs a “mistake” and adding imposing them “could very well set a dangerous precedent that other nations could use to protect their local market from foreign competition.”

The Alliance said its analysis of 2017 auto sales data showed a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles would result in an average price increase of $5,800, which would boost costs to American consumers by nearly $45 billion annually.

Automakers are concerned tariffs would mean less capital to spend on self-driving cars and electric vehicles.

“We are already in the midst of an intense global race to lead on electrification and automation. The increased costs associated with the proposed tariffs may result in diminishing the U.S.’ competitiveness in developing these advanced technologies,” the Alliance wrote.

Toyota said in a statement Wednesday that new tariffs “would increase the cost of every vehicle sold in the country.” The automaker said the tariffs would mean even a Toyota Camry built in Kentucky “would face $1,800 in increased costs.”

Both automotive trade groups cited a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics that the cost to U.S. jobs from the import duties would be 195,000 jobs and could be as high as 624,000 jobs if other countries retaliate.

The German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses said the “pattern of rising protectionism is very likely to continue if the U.S. decide to impose tariffs on foreign automobiles and automobile parts, thus causing tremendous damage to both economies.”

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, a state that produced nearly 1 million vehicles and 1.7 million engines built by foreign automakers last year, urged the Commerce Department not to invoke the tariffs. She said job losses from new levies could be “devastating.”

The proposed tariffs on national security grounds have been met by opposition among many Republicans in Congress.

Trump has made the tariffs a key part of his economic message and repeatedly lamented the U.S auto sector trade deficit, particularly with Germany and Japan. Some aides have suggested that the effort is a way to try to pressure Canada and Mexico into making more concessions in ongoing talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday the department aimed to wrap up the probe by late July or August. The Commerce Department plans to hold two days of public comments in July on its investigation of auto imports.

The Commerce Department has asked if it should consider U.S. owned auto manufacturers differently than foreign automakers.

The Association of Global Automakers rejected that contention, saying its members’ American workers “are no less patriotic or willing to serve their country in a time of crisis than any other Americans.”

The group questioned national security as grounds to restrict auto imports. “America does not go to war in a Ford Fiesta,” they added.

The Alliance said “there is no basis to claim that auto-related imports are a threat to national security” and noted that 98 percent of U.S. auto imports came from U.S. national security allies.
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While U.S. immigration reform failed again in the House of Representatives, senators on Wednesday promoted competing partisan plans to address the plight of undocumented families detained at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Senate Democrats unveiled a multipronged proposal, the Central American Reform and Relief Act, that aims to alleviate pressure along America’s southern border by curbing violence and lawlessness in countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. The bill would increase American resources to fight drug cartels in Central America, strengthen federal criminal penalties for traffickers and smugglers, reverse cuts in U.S. aid to the region, and boost resources at U.S. embassies and consulates to process asylum claims.

“If they [Central Americans] can claim asylum right there, it’s very much better for them and very much better for us,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said. “We need to address root causes that lead families to flee Central America to our southern border.”

Elements of the proposal are modeled after Plan Colombia, which boosted U.S. assistance to Bogota beginning in 2000 to help end the country’s civil war and reduce the drug trade.

“In Colombia, the U.S. involvement helped greatly curtail the cartels there. That’s why many of them moved to these three Central American countries. Well, we can do the same thing in Central America,” Schumer said.

Republicans, meanwhile, promoted their own bill that would end separations of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border and reduce detentions of undocumented border crossers overall by boosting the number of federal immigration judges overseeing a long backlog of cases.

“We have 350 immigration judges in the country,” Oklahoma Senator James Lankford said. “We have a backlog of 700,000 immigration cases right now.”

The Keep Families Together and Enforce the Law Act aims to facilitate President Donald Trump’s executive order to halt family separations while retaining the president’s zero-tolerance policy on illegal entry into the United States.

“We can actually enforce our immigration laws and keep families together,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said.

‘Look at alternatives’

Many Democrats object to prosecuting every illegal border crossing — a policy the Trump administration began earlier this year — saying it is unnecessary and part of a broader campaign by the president to deter asylum seekers and other immigrants from impoverished regions.

“When people do come to the border, we should look at alternatives to detention to keep families together,” Schumer said.

Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois noted that for decades, the United States granted close to 100,000 asylum claims a year, but that there have been only 18,000 so far this year.

“I believe we can do better. And I believe there are those in need of help. And I believe this is a definition of who we are as Americans. The way we treat the people at our borders — if we are humane, if we are civilized, if we are caring — it’s a message to the world. If we are the opposite, it’s also a message to the world,” Durbin said.

Republicans countered that failing to prosecute undocumented migrants only encourages more illegal border crossings.

“What we’ve created is an incentive to come into the country illegally — that if you cross the border and bring your family, you’ll be released into the country and then you can just disappear and no one will ever go and try to find you,” Lankford said.

Cornyn accused Democrats of promoting policies that would go “from zero tolerance when it comes to violating the immigration laws to zero enforcement.”
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Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday he met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to discuss energy issues and U.S. sanctions on Russia.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest crude oil and natural gas producers, and the United States has been urging global energy producers to boost output to stem an increase in prices.

“We met. We discussed energy issues, among other things. We touched upon questions related to sanctions,” Novak said in a press briefing in Washington. “We can’t sidestep these difficult questions, so of course we touched upon them during our contact.”

Novak said he had also met with U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry to discuss energy cooperation.

The meetings occurred while energy executives and ministers from around the globe converged on Washington for the triennial World Gas Conference, the industry’s biggest summit.

The U.S. Congress imposed economic sanctions in recent months against Russia that – among other things – seek to prevent companies from participating in Russian pipeline projects or oil and gas development efforts.

The sanctions were designed to punish Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Moscow denies it interfered in the election.

Russia depends heavily on pipeline networks to get its energy production to European markets, and is also keen to develop energy reserves in its Arctic.

Novak has said in the past that the United States should not be permitted to impose such sanctions without a vote of the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member.

The United States has been urging increased supply from the world’s biggest producers, including OPEC members, to help stem an increase in oil prices that threatens economic growth.

It is also renewing sanctions against OPEC-producer Iran after abandoning a global deal meant to stem its nuclear ambitions, and urging consumers of its oil to stop their imports completely – another factor pushing up oil prices.

Perry told reporters on Monday, before meeting with Novak, that he was “amenable to having conversations, to creating a relationship” with Russia.

“He had invited me to, actually, to come visit some of the things that they are doing in the Arctic,” Perry said. “I think we’ve got our issues with Russia, but I’m one of those that believe you need to be having conversations with folks and finding places that we can work together.”
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U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley, a high-ranking Democrat seen as a possible future leader of the chamber, lost his re-election bid on Tuesday in an upset that highlighted the ideological battles at play in this year’s midterm elections.

Crowley, a 10-term incumbent who was fourth in line in the House of Representatives’ Democratic leadership, was defeated by 28-year-old challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a safely Democratic district in New York City.

Political analysts cast Ocasio-Cortez’s win as the biggest upset since House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican, lost in 2014 to a little-known right-wing professor, Dave Brat.

The outcome of the race in New York, one of seven U.S. states that held nominating contests, known as primaries, on Tuesday, added fuel to the battle between the Democratic Party’s establishment wing, led by longtime House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and a more liberal faction inspired by Bernie Sanders’ presidential run in 2016.

Should Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in November, Crowley would have been considered on the shortlist for speaker. Instead, after conceding the race, he said he would support Ocasio-Cortez in the general election.

“The Trump administration is a threat to everything we stand for here in Queens and the Bronx, and if we don’t win back the House this November, we will lose the nation we love,” Crowley said in a statement.

Meanwhile, two Republicans backed by U.S. President Donald Trump prevailed in their nominating contests Tuesday night, again underscoring his influence among the party’s voters.

In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster beat businessman John Warren in a runoff election held a day after the incumbent campaigned alongside the president.

In a bitter matchup in New York City’s Staten Island borough, incumbent Dan Donovan easily held off the man he replaced in Congress, Michael Grimm, who resigned three years ago after pleading guilty to tax fraud.

“New York, and my many friends on Staten Island, have elected someone they have always been very proud of,” Trump said on Twitter late on Tuesday, congratulating Donovan.

Grimm, a bombastic former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent known for once threatening to toss a television reporter off a balcony, had cast himself as the true Trump supporter in what had become a nasty, insult-laden campaign. He said his conviction was due to a “witch hunt,” echoing Trump’s characterization of the investigation into his campaign’s possible ties to Russia.

The district is considered within reach for Democrats in November.

Seven states hold primaries

Voters in Colorado, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah picked candidates on Tuesday for the Nov. 6 midterm elections that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress as well as numerous gubernatorial seats.

Democrats need to flip 23 of 435 seats to take over the House of Representatives, which would stymie much of Trump’s agenda while likely opening up new avenues of investigation into his administration. They would have to net two seats to take the Senate, but face longer odds there.

In Colorado, an establishment-backed Democrat defeated a liberal insurgent to win the right to take on incumbent Republican Representative Mike Coffman, whose district favored Democrat Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016.

Jason Crow, an Iraq war veteran backed by the national party, faced Levi Tillemann, who was endorsed by Our Revolution, a group born out of Sanders’ presidential bid. Tillemann earned attention this month with an anti-gun violence video in which he blasted himself in the face with pepper spray.

Democratic U.S. Representative Jared Polis won his party’s nomination for governor in Colorado and could become the first openly gay man to be elected governor of a U.S. state. He will face Republican Walker Stapleton, the state’s treasurer, in November.

In Utah, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney easily won his party’s nod for Senate. He will be heavily favored in November in the conservative state.

The government whistleblower Chelsea Manning finished a distant second to incumbent Democratic Senator Ben Cardin in Maryland.
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The U.S. military wants to install missile defense radar in Hawaii to identify any ballistic missiles that are fired from North Korea or elsewhere, officials said Tuesday.

The $1 billion system would spot warheads on missiles headed for Hawaii and other U.S. states, and provide that information to ground-based interceptors in Alaska designed to shoot them down. It would be able to distinguish warheads from decoys that are designed to trick missile defense systems.

The radar would help give the Alaska missiles “better eyes,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii and a supporter of the project.

So far, lawmakers have appropriated $61 million for planning but not funds for construction. Schatz, who serves on the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he doesn’t have much doubt about the likelihood of follow-on funding. 

The radar would be about 30 to 50 feet (9 to 15 meters) wide and 60 feet to 80 feet (18 to 24 meters) high, according to the Missile Defense Agency. 

It will likely to have a flat-face surface like one in Shemya, Alaska, instead of a ball-like appearance of other military radar. Experts say the larger the face, the more precisely it will be able to distinguish between warheads and decoys.

The agency is studying two possible locations for the radar, both of which are on Oahu’s North Shore. It’s collecting public comment through July 16. 

Schatz said lawmakers discussed the radar with the previous commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. Harry Harris, who recently retired and has been nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to South Korea. 

“We already have robust capabilities, but working with Admiral Harris, we wanted to double down and make sure we have the most powerful combination of missile interceptors and radar systems anywhere,” Schatz said in a phone interview. 

The radar would help identify long-range ballistic missile threats mid-way through flight. 

David Santoro, a director and senior fellow for nuclear policy at the Pacific Forum think tank in Honolulu, said threats from North Korea were increasing as Pyongyang developed more sophisticated missiles and nuclear weapons. 

“Over the past few weeks, we have seen a so-called peace initiative developing, but the reality is the threat is still there. It’s not going away,” Santoro said. The U.S. would be expected to build a radar system to counter the threats, he said. 

U.S. concerns about the threat from North Korean missiles spiked last year as North Korea test-fired long-range missile over Japan and threatened to launch ballistic missiles toward the Guam, a major U.S. military hub in the Pacific. President Donald Trump warned the U.S. military was “locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely” and that the U.S. would unleash “fire and fury” on the North if it continued to threaten America. 

But then Trump and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, met in Singapore earlier this month and issued a declaration agreeing to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” 

The statement did not define a process, say when it would begin or say how long it might take.
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