President Donald Trump triggered rampant confusion among his own aides and administration officials when he said Friday he is withdrawing new sanctions aimed at North Korea that were just issued by his own administration.
“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 tweeted on Friday.
Trump’s announcement amounted to a startling rebuke of policy action announced by his own government, once again calling attention to the unconventional and undisciplined policy process that has often defined the Trump administration. The White House declined to give details on the sudden policy shift, but said Trump was pulling back newly-issued sanctions because he “likes” North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.
It was not immediately clear which sanctions Trump was referring to. But just 24 hours earlier,the Treasury Department announced sanctions targeting two Chinese shipping companies that have allegedly helped North Korea skirt sanctions imposed by the United Nations. The new actions were fulfilled under existing sanctions authority.
Pressed to expand on Trump’s tweet, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders offered only a brief statement, saying: “President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.”
She did not clarify which sanctions Trump was referring to.
Several White House officials told CNN they were confused by Trump’s tweet and were unsure what he was referring to. But in the 24 hours before Trump walked back the sanctions, top administration officials were busy publicly heralding the new designations targeting the Chinese shipping companies.
“Important actions today from @USTreasury,” Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, tweeted on Thursday. “The maritime industry must do more to stop North Korea’s illicit shipping practices. Everyone should take notice and review their own activities to ensure they are not involved in North Korea’s sanctions evasion.”
In a statement announcing the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the US believes “the full implementation of North Korea-related UN Security Council resolutions is crucial to a successful outcome” of denuclearizing North Korea.
“Treasury will continue to enforce our sanctions, and we are making it explicitly clear that shipping companies employing deceptive tactics to mask illicit trade with North Korea expose themselves to great risk,” Mnuchin said.
Trump administration officials had also hailed the sanctions as a continuation of the US pressure campaign on North Korea and an attempt to enforce existing sanctions authorities, insisting this was not aimed at widening North Korea-targeted sanctions.
“It is really meant to be a continuous activity of the US, and it really needs to a continuous activity of … all of the UN members to maintain the integrity of the sanctions,” a senior administration official told CNN on Thursday.
Adam Mount, a nuclear expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said Trump’s move to weaken enforcement of existing sanctions will reduce the pressure on North Korea and make it more difficult for US diplomats to ensure other countries maintain the pressure campaign on North Korea.
“The message this sends is unmistakable. After refusing to consider sanctions relief at Hanoi, Trump volunteers to loosen enforcement in order to preserve the talks,” Mount said. “It shovels leverage to other side, assuring them their tactics could work.”
“Reversing the designations will make it even more difficult for US diplomats to concentrate allies + partners on sanctions enforcement, especially at sea,” he added.
