By Michael R. Gordon and Ian Talley
President Trump said he wouldn't move forward with a round of
large-scale sanctions against North Korea on Friday, catching
senior officials in his own administration by surprise and spurring
confusion about his diplomatic strategy to induce Pyongyang to give
up its nuclear arsenal and programs.
The decision was the latest in a series of high-profile
declarations by Mr. Trump contravening actions and decisions by
agencies and even by his own appointees on issues ranging from
foreign policy to election meddling, and drew criticism from
national security experts and lawmakers.
As with many of Mr. Trump's policy assertions, Friday's came in
a Twitter message, with no advance notice to officials across the
government, including within the North Korea division at the
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which
investigates violations and develops the sanctions.
Mr. Trump also announced on Friday that Islamic State's land
holdings in Syria had been eliminated, contradicting the
Pentagon.
"Once again, President Trump is making critical national
security decisions on the fly, with tweets that directly conflict
with the advice of his cabinet and experts," said Rep. Eliot Engel
(D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr. Trump's decision may have been made because of fears that
North Korea, which on Friday pulled out of a cooperative venture
with South Korea, could begin missile tests in retaliation for U.S.
sanctions, one person familiar with the matter said.
In a Twitter message, Mr. Trump wrote: "I have today ordered the
withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!"
Initially, administration officials believed that Mr. Trump was
addressing the sanctions adopted Thursday against two Chinese
shipping companies that U.S. officials say have been engaging in
illicit trade with North Korea.
But another person familiar with the matter said later that Mr.
Trump actually was referring not to the shipping company sanctions
on Thursday but to a much tougher package of sanctions that has
been discussed within the administration but has yet to be decided
or publicly announced.
Mr. Trump "was not suggesting a reversal of what was already
announced," this person said. Rather, "he was talking about not
moving forward with additional large-scale sanctions," the person
said.
White House officials didn't clarify what particular sanctions
Mr. Trump had in mind when he issued his statement Friday. The
Treasury Department's press office referred questions on the matter
to the White House.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Mr. Trump's
relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had a bearing on
the decision.
"President Trump likes Chairman Kim, and he doesn't think these
sanctions will be necessary," Ms. Sanders said.
A broader question is whether Mr. Trump is undermining his own
leverage in trying to get North Korea back to the negotiating table
and to persuade Pyongyang to eventually give up its nuclear and
long-range missile programs.
Washington has been relying on economic pressure to pursue its
objectives. But the North Koreans have responded with an energetic
program of sanctions evasions and have offered concessions that
fall well short of the U.S. demands.
Bruce Klingner, a former Central Intelligence Agency official
now at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the move was a
mistake because it "undermines the U.S. maximum-pressure policy
against North Korea."
"It also raises a question of whether the U.S. will impose any
other sanctions on North Korea for criminal activity or
human-rights violations," he said. "It also reflects apparent
policy disarray in the administration, and is kind of a confusing
action."
South Korea's government has been interested in developing
economic and diplomatic ties with the North and has hoped to get it
to modify its behavior, goals backed by some groups in the U.S.
The steps that had been announced Thursday were the first moves
by the Trump administration to tighten economic sanctions since
last month's failed summit meeting in Hanoi between Messrs. Trump
and Kim.
Mr. Trump values his relationship with Mr. Kim and has practiced
a top-down style of diplomacy. That approach failed to bridge the
divide between the two sides at last's month summit, but the White
House has said Mr. Trump is still open to negotiations.
The two companies that were listed by the Treasury Department as
sanctions violators are Dalian Haibo International Freight Co. and
Liaoning Danxing International Forwarding Co.
Mr. Trump's tweet Friday initially appeared to cancel those
steps, but officials said later those sanctions would remain
intact.
Had they been canceled by Mr. Trump, he not only would be
undermining his Treasury Department, but his National Security
Council. The head of the NSC, national security adviser John
Bolton, tweeted in favor of Thursday's sanctions.
But even by ordering the withdrawal of future sanctions, Mr.
Trump would be taking a new step to counter administration
enforcement actions or policy initiatives.
Mr. Trump in several prior cases has abruptly upended policies
that often take years to formulate and implement.
Last year, the Commerce Department banned U.S. companies from
selling components to the Chinese technology firm ZTE Corp., a move
that imperiled the company. Mr. Trump appeared to catch his
administration by surprise when he said in a 39-word tweet he was
working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to keep the company in
business.
"Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been
instructed to get it done!" he said through his Twitter
account.
Last August, Mr. Trump issued a four-part Twitter message
countermanding then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who had said then
that with U.S.-North Korea denuclearization talks faltering, the
U.S. would no longer refrain from conducting military exercises
with ally South Korea.
The next day, Mr. Trump wrote: "The President believes that his
relationship with Kim Jong Un is a very good and warm one, and
there is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of
money on joint U.S.-South Korea war games."
Mr. Mattis resigned in December in large part over a crucial
difference with Mr. Trump on the issue of U.S. troops in Syria
after the White House declared the Islamic State extremist group
defeated and ordered a withdrawal of U.S. forces, a decision widely
disputed within the national security establishment.
Mr. Trump has frequently denounced national security and
intelligence agencies, dismissing their conclusion that Russia
sought to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election to help Mr. Trump's
prospects.
--Alex Leary, Vivian Salama and Louise Radnofsky contributed to
this article.
Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Ian
Talley at ian.talley@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 22, 2019 20:16 ET (00:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.