At the conclusion of last week, President Trump announced he would reverse sanctions on North Korea that were recently instituted by the Treasury Department.
In a tweet, Trump wrote: “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!”
This was, needless to say, a surprise declaration that sparked confusion in Washington. For a long time, the administration had been adamant that pressing forward with a hardline stance on Pyongyang was the only way to move things forward. Trump’s decision directly contradicts his own national security adviser, John Bolton, who has repeatedly argued that they were a significant step toward ensuring North Korea remains isolated over its nuclear ambitions.
White House officials did not specify which sanctions Trump was reversing. But the president was likely referring to sanctions the Treasury Department had announced the day before: new penalties on two Chinese shipping companies accused of helping North Korea evade existing sanctions.
Regardless of the target, many observers were shocked that Trump would publicly rebuke an effort by his own Treasury Department to sanction a major U.S. adversary.
However unorthodox his methods may be, the president’s strategy seems pretty straightforward: The central negotiating point on as far as the North Koreans are concerned has been their desperate economic situation, a crisis due largely to Western sanctions. In the wake of the recent unsuccessful negotiations at the Hanoi conference, Trump is trying out a-carrot-as-opposed-to-a-stick approach. This attempt to cozy up to North Korean leaders was even alluded to by Trump’s press secretary. In a brief statement, Sarah Huckabee Sanders attributed the decision to Trump’s relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary,” she said.