US President Donald Trump extended sanctions against North Korea for one year, saying the country still posed an “extraordinary threat” despite insisting just days earlier that Pyongyang was no longer a nuclear danger to the US.
The sanctions, which were renewed on Friday, were originally introduced under an executive order originally put in place in 2008.
After his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12, Trump had said that sanctions would not be lifted on Pyongyang until further progress was made on its denuclearisation. However, he also tweeted that, “Everybody can now feel much safer now as there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”
Friday’s order said that the “existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”
The move came as the US and South Korea cancelled two more training exercises. The Pentagon said the goal was to support diplomatic negotiations.
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