After North
Korea claimed to have tested a hydrogen
bomb on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to stop
"all trade with any country doing business with North Korea."
Trump's remarks were widely interpreted to be a reference to China, which
is involved in 90% of North Korea's foreign trade, CNNMoney reports. Trump has
previously called on China to
do more to curtail North Korea's nuclear ambitions. However, experts say Beijing
is unwilling to take drastic actions that could result in regime change and
leave U.S. troops on China's doorstep.
But China is also the United States' largest trading partner, with
exports and imports between the two countries totaling nearly $650 billion in
2016, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative. Any limits on that activity could have grim consequences for
American firms doing business with Beijing.
Aside from China, a few other countries trade with North Korea as well.
Pyongyang also did business with India, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and the
Philippines, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Observatory of Economic Complexity citing
data as of 2015. North Korea's top export destinations include China at $2.3
billion, India at $97.8 million, Pakistan at $43.1 million, Burkina Faso at
$32.8 million and a handful of other Asian countries at $26.7 million. Imports
largely come from China at $2.95 billion, India at $108 million, Russia at
$78.2 million, Thailand at $73.8 million and the Philippines at $53.2 million.
Still, some of those figures may be out of date. India banned most trade
with North Korea in April amid tougher United Nations sanctions, for instance.
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