WASHINGTON, March 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump on Friday
abruptly announced the cancellation of sanctions imposed by his own Treasury
Department to tighten international pressure on North Korea.
“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.
I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” Trump
said in a tweet.
He appeared to be referring to measures unveiled Thursday that targeted
two Chinese companies accused of helping North Korea to evade tight
international sanctions meant to pressure Pyongyang into ending its nuclear
weapons program.
But The Washington Post reported, citing Trump administration officials,
that the president’s tweet referenced future sanctions that had not been
announced and were scheduled for “the coming days.”
The Thursday sanctions were the first new sign of pressure since talks
between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke down in Hanoi less
than a month ago.
However, Trump, who has previously spoken of “love” for the totalitarian
leader, appears to retain hope that his strong personal relationship will
bear fruit.
“President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions
will be necessary,” the president’s spokeswoman, Sarah Sanders, said.
Adam Schiff, a Democrat who heads the intelligence committee in the House
of Representatives, blasted Trump for cancelling sanctions “imposed only
yesterday and championed by his own national security advisor, because he
‘loves’ Kim.”
“Foolish naivete is dangerous enough. Gross incompetence and disarray in
the White House make it even worse,” Schiff tweeted.
On Thursday, Trump national security advisor John Bolton had tweeted that
the sanctions were meant to put an end to “illicit shipping practices” by
North Korea.
“Everyone should take notice and review their own activities to ensure
they are not involved in North Korea’s sanctions evasion,” he said.
China complained, saying that it did enforce all UN resolutions and
opposed “any country imposing unilateral sanctions and taking long-arm
jurisdiction against any Chinese entity according to their own domestic
laws.”
This was Trump’s second major, unexpected foreign policy announcement by
Twitter in two days.
On Thursday, he sent a tweet reversing decades of US policy and pledged to
recognize Israeli sovereignty over the hotly contested Golan Heights border
area with Syria.