US President Donald Trump has said he is ordering the reversal of recently announced North Korea-related sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department.
“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 said on Twitter on Friday. “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!”
Trump did not specify which sanctions he was reversing. The Treasury Department on Thursday or Friday did not announce on North Korea, but the United States on Thursday imposed new penalties on two Chinese shipping companies accused of helping North Korea evade existing sanctions.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attributed the decision to Trump’s relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but did not specify which sanctions the president spoke of.
“President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary,” she said.
The Treasury Department said on Thursday the firms — Dalian Haibo International Freight Co Ltd and Liaoning Danxing International Forwarding Co Ltd — will be banned from the American financial system and can no longer access any US-based assets.
It said Individuals and firms that do business with the companies could also face US penalties.
The second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim collapsed last month over differences on how far Pyongyang was willing to limit its nuclear program and the degree of US eagerness to ease sanctions. Trump abruptly walked away from the talks and held a press conference shortly afterwards.
During the presser, Trump said that “he had to walk away” from the talks because of the North’s demands to lift all economic sanctions against Pyongyang as a prerequisite to denuclearization.
However, a few hours later, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho offered a completely different breakdown of the summit, telling reporters in a separate presser that Pyongyang had never asked for the removal of all sanctions, but was only seeking their partial removal.
According to a state media report published earlier this month, the people of North Korea blame the US for the collapse of the summit. – Press TV.
