News / Foreign Policy

Trump: North Koreans ‘suffering greatly', don't need new sanctions

Saturday, 30 March 2019 3:51 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 30 March 2019 4:22 PM ]

US President Donald Trump talks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, March 29, 2019. (Reuters photo)

US President Donald Trump has said that he decided not to impose additional sanctions on North Korea because the North Korean people were already “suffering greatly.”

"They are suffering greatly in North Korea. They're having a hard time in North Korea," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Friday, explaining why he last week announced to roll back sanctions on North Korea that the Treasury Department had planned.

"And I just didn't think additional sanctions at this time were necessary. Doesn't mean I don't put them on later but I didn't think additional sanctions at this time were necessary," he said.

Last week, Trump said he was ordering the reversal of recently announced North Korea-related sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department.

"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 said on Twitter on March 22. "I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!"

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attributed the decision to Trump’s relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but did not specify which sanctions the president spoke of.

The second summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim collapsed last month over differences on how far Pyongyang was willing to limit its nuclear program and the degree of US eagerness to ease sanctions. Trump abruptly walked away from the talks and held a press conference shortly afterwards.

Trump said on Friday he got along "very well" with the young leader, adding: "We understand each other."

He said he had a very good relationship with Kim.

"I think it is very important you maintain that relationship at least as long as you can," he said.

PressTV-‘North Korea won’t kowtow to US imperialism’

Several decades of confrontation between the US and North Korea has shown that it will not kowtow to US imperialism, an American scholar says.

The North Korean people have been suffering since the 1950s for resisting US imperialism. The US has imposed all kinds of sanctions and bans on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea but it has refused to give in to hegemonic US designs on the region.

Some analysts say if Trump was really concerned about the suffering of the North Korean people he would lift sanctions and negotiate in good faith, neither of which he has done.

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