Trump Announces Reversal of North Korea Sanctions

President Donald Trump said he has lifted sanctions on North Korea, with that announcement coming one day after the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced new sanctions involving the country's attempts at evading sanctions. The president's move, announced March 22 on his Twitter account, did not specify which U.S.-imposed sanctions on North Korea would be lifted. “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 wrote on Twitter. “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” According to the Associated Press, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a March 22 statement that Trump “likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.”

The announcement came one day after OFAC announced two North Korea designations of two Chinese shipping entities: Dalian Haibo International Freight Company and Liaoning Danxing International Forwarding Company. OFAC’s notice was accompanied by a 19-page guide on “addressing North Korea’s illicit shipping practices.” The guide included includes risk mitigation measures and a summary of penalties for violators (see 1903210052).