As several KEI analyses have shown, South Korea’s tourism industry has been one of the main casualties of China’s economic retaliation over deployment of the THAAD missile defense system.
ICBMs are not the only things soaring in North Korean skies. Comprehensive second quarter data released by China Customs last week shows a huge jump in North Korea’s trade deficit with China.
Last March, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to prepare an Omnibus Report on Significant Trade Deficits within 90 days.
It’s official – new numbers from March confirm that China’s THAAD retaliation has significantly cut into South Korea’s tourism industry.