Trump Says North Korea Still Poses 'Extraordinary Threat' As He Extends Sanctions For A Year

L-R: Kim Jong Un - Donald Trump

Donald Trump has declared that North Korea still poses an “extraordinary threat” to the United States, less than two weeks after he said the nation was no longer a nuclear danger.

In an executive order on Friday, the US president extended for one year the so-called “national emergency” with respect to the nuclear-armed nation, authorising economic restrictions against it.

While expected, the declaration comes just nine days after Trump tweeted “there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea” following his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore.

Following the meeting, Trump said that the two leaders had “developed a very special bond” and Kim said the “world will see a major change”.

But this latest order appears to undermine Trump’s claim.

The order states that “the existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material” and the actions and policies of the North Korean government “continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States”.

The national emergency has been in place since 2008 and is a sign of the enduring tensions between the US and North Korea that spiked last year as the North moved closed to perfecting a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach American soil, but ebbed with the June 12 summit where Kim agreed to “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula.

The two sides, however, still have to negotiate the terms under which the North would give up its missiles and win relief from sanctions - a goal that has eluded US administrations for a quarter of a century.

Trump claimed at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday that denuclearisation had already begun, although his Defence Secretary James Mattis told reporters a day earlier that he was not aware that North Korea had taken any steps yet toward denuclearisation, and that detailed negotiations have not yet begun.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said on Friday evening that it has “indefinitely suspended” a major military exercise with South Korea, known as Freedom Guard and scheduled for August, as well as two Korean Marine exchange training exercises.


(HUFFPOST)



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