Asia/Pacific

Congressional Democrats ramped up their opposition on Thursday to Japan gaining a seat at the negotiating table of an Asia-Pacific trade deal. 

House Democrats have gathered 43 signatures — 35 in the House and 8 in the Senate — against Japan's entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks because of the lack of market access, especially for the auto sector, in a letter headed for the White House on Thursday. 

The lawmakers question how a "TPP agreement could be sufficiently equipped to address the necessary transformation of the Japanese market."

They argue that Japan’s "significant, long-standing and persistent economic barriers" have blocked U.S. exports and have hurt workers and businesses for decades. 

"These long-standing, economically harmful practices are not susceptible to cursory negotiation at this stage, three years into the U.S. involvement in the TPP negotiations and close to the Administration’s target date of concluding talks by the end of this year," they wrote in the letter to President Obama.

Obama “highlighted” the threat North Korea's nuclear and missile programs pose, according to a White House readout.

Senate Republicans lashed out against Afghan President Hamid Karzai's allegations of a U.S.-Taliban connection, saying the Afghan leader's comments only further complicate efforts between Washington and Kabul to set up a postwar plan for the country. 

President Obama said Tuesday that forging new trade deals should serve as a catalyst to job creation and broader economic growth in the United States. 

At a meeting of the President's Export Council, Obama said that many of the jobs generated during the nation's economic recovery have been driven by growing exports amid a goal to double them by 2015. 

One of the best ways to maintain that growth "is making sure that we get in place strong trade deals."

He argued that getting all sizes of U.S. businesses more access to these markets can "make a huge difference in terms of our long-term prospects."

Fresh off his visit to North Korea, former basketball star Dennis Rodman told a North Dakota television station that he plans to go on vacation with dictator and sports fan Kim Jong Un in August.

“The kid is awesome,” Rodman said. “But I think his grandfather [Kim Il-sung] and his father [Kim Jong-il] built this whole thing up and he has to do this.”

Rodman has said that Kim asked him to deliver a message that Obama call him. He said he “doesn't want to do war,” despite this week's decision to withdraw from the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War following threats to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States.

“I don't condone what he does,” Rodman told KVLY-KXJB. “But, he's my friend.”

The Obama administration on Monday announced a round of new sanctions against senior North Korean defense officials in the wake of the country's third nuclear test and increasing martial rhetoric.

The State Department added Pak To-Chun and Chu Kyu-Chang, two heads of the country's Munitions Industry Department, which manages the country's weapons production and arms exports, to the list of sanctioned individuals. O Kuk-Ryol, a vice chairman of the North Korean National Defense Commission who formerly headed nuclear research and development, was also added to the list.

Concurrently, the Treasury Department designated the Foreign Trade Bank, North Korea’s primary foreign exchange bank, and Second Economic Committee Chairman Paek Se-Bong as having links to the country's weapons of mass destruction program. The sanctions prohibit transactions between the designees and U.S. citizens, residents and corporations and freezes any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

The State Department on Monday greeted a ceremony between Iran and Pakistan to launch a natural gas pipeline project with fresh warnings that it could trigger U.S. sanctions against Pakistan.

“We have serious concerns if this project actually goes forward that the Iran Sanctions Act would be triggered,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

She touted U.S. efforts to help increase Pakistan’s supply of energy through other means.

“We've been straight up with the Pakistanis about these concerns. And as I said at some length last week, we are also working very closely bilaterally to support alternative projects to provide Pakistan with the energy that it needs,” Nuland said at a press briefing.

The Obama administration remains fully committed to seeing though the Pentagon's proposed strategic shift from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the Asia-Pacific region, a top White House official said this week. 

The head of the Navy’s Pacific fleet called climate change the most significant threat to long-term security in that region.

Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III made the comments Friday in an interview with The Boston Globe.

He said that turmoil from climate change “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen . . . that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.’’

Your morning global affairs speed-read

The United States launched its annual joint military exercises with South Korea today at a time of heightened tensions on the peninsula.

The annual drills come as North Korea announced Monday that it has 'completely scrapped' the 1953 armistice with its southern neighbor (the two countries never signed a peace treaty after their 1950s war) in the wake of last week's new U.N. sanctions following its third nuclear test. Meanwhile, South Korea is said to be flirting with nuclear weapons amid rising fears of its northern neighbor.