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The president’s top economic advisers remain deeply divided over a possible withdrawal from the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, as negotiators from both countries struggle to rewrite the five-year-old deal.

The debate comes as the United States and South Korea are working together to try to combat a growing nuclear threat from North Korea, which said on Sunday that it had tested a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. It is a more powerful weapon than the atomic bomb it had tested in the past.

In recent days, a frustrated Mr. Trump has pushed his staff to take bold action against a host of governments, including the one in Seoul, that he has accused of unfair trade practices. But many of his more moderate advisers, including the chairman of the National Economic Council, Gary D. Cohn, believe that such a move could prompt a trade war that could hurt the United States economy…….

Scrapping the deal would also have profound geopolitical implications in the region, said Michael Green, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who oversaw issues on the Korean Peninsula during the administration of President George W. Bush.

“One of the big reasons we decided to go forward with the agreement was to demonstrate to the South Koreans, North Koreans and Chinese that the U.S. was committed to this relationship for the long haul,” Mr. Green said.

That the administration would even consider canceling the agreement in the midst of the North Korean missile and nuclear crisis is astonishing, Mr. Green said.

“It’s probably all theater, but it has negative strategic consequences as we try to manage the North Korean threat,” he said. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/world/asia/us-south-korea-trade.html