Trump sparks flap over N. Korea sanctions
President’s tweet announcing he rolled back economic penalties appeared to contradict his aides
WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump undercut his own Treasury Department on Friday with a sudden announcement that he had rolled back newly imposed North Korea sanctions, appearing to overrule national security experts as a favour to Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader.
The move, announced on Twitter, was a remarkable display of dissension within the Trump administration. It created confusion at the highest levels of the federal government, just as the president’s aides were seeking to pressure North Korea into returning to negotiations over dismantling its nuclear weapons program.
“It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea,” Trump tweeted. “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!”
The Treasury Department announced new sanctions Friday against Iran and Venezuela, but not North Korea.
However, economic penalties were imposed Thursday on two Chinese shipping companies suspected of helping North Korea evade international sanctions. Those penalties, announced with news releases and a White House briefing, were the first imposed against North Korea since late last year and came less than a month after a summit between Trump and Kim collapsed in Hanoi, Vietnam, without a deal.
It was initially believed that Trump had confused the day that the North Korea sanctions were announced, and officials said they were caught off guard by the president’s tweet. Asked for clarification, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, declined to give specifics.
“President Trump likes Chairman Kim, and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary,” she said.
Hours later, two officials familiar with Trump’s thinking said the president was actually referring to additional North Korea sanctions that are under consideration but not yet formally issued.
That statement sought to soften the blow that Trump’s tweet had dealt to his most loyal aides. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, personally signed off on the sanctions that were issued Thursday and hailed the decision in an accompanying statement.
“The United States and our like-minded partners remain committed to achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea,” Mnuchin said in the statement. He described the sanctions as part of an international campaign against North Korea that “is crucial to a successful outcome.”
Sanctions are one of America’s most powerful tools for pressuring rogue nations. Mnuchin has taken great pride in bolstering Treasury’s sanctions capacity and often says that he spends half of his time working on sanctions matters.
Tony Sayegh, a Treasury Department spokesman, referred questions about Friday’s sanctions confusion to the White House.
John Bolton, the president’s national security adviser, had also hailed the earlier action against North Korea in a tweet Thursday: “Everyone should take notice and review their own activities to ensure they are not involved in North Korea’s sanctions evasion.”
Trump has been eager to strike a deal for North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons arsenal and, in turn, hand him a signature foreign policy achievement that has eluded his predecessors.
Hawks in the administration, such as Bolton, have been wary of trusting Kim despite Trump’s professed strong personal connection to the North Korean leader.
Last month, Trump was criticized for defending Kim over the death of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died in 2017 after being imprisoned in North Korea. Trump said he believed Kim’s claim that he was not aware of Warmbier’s medical condition.
But in recent weeks there have been increasing signs that the thawing relations between the two countries could again turn frosty.
This month, a vice foreign minister of North Korea, Choe Son Hui, accused Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Bolton of creating an “atmosphere of hostility and mistrust” despite the chemistry between Trump and Kim.
In another sign of hardening Friday, North Korea withdrew its staff from the joint liaison office it has operated with South Korea since September. The office was viewed as a potential first step toward the Koreas establishing diplomatic missions in each other’s capitals. But North Korea has expressed frustration with how South Korea has been handling its role as a mediator with the United States.