The official declaration came in a notice to Congress on Friday, in which Trump
ordered that economic restrictions would continue for one year, The Washington
Post reported.
The national emergency Trump signed will keep in place sanctions first imposed a
decade ago by President George W. Bush.
It also allows Washington to forbid North Korean leaders from selling or using
any assets they may hold in the United States. It is separate from US sanctions
related to the North’s human rights issues and international penalties imposed
over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
"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," Trump wrote on
Friday.
The paperwork came a day after Trump said at a Cabinet meeting in the White
House that North Korea had already started a process of "total
denuclearization,” adding that Pyongyang had blown up four of its big test
sites.
Trump has said that North Korea is blowing up its nuclear and missile test sites
and that a process of "total denuclearization ... has already started taking
place.”
However, US officials familiar with current intelligence on North Korea’s
nuclear and missile test sites said there was no such evidence.
Trump’s stern tone and list of accusations against North Korea marked a complete
reversal from Trump’s optimistic language following his June 12 summit with Kim
in Singapore.
"Sleep well tonight!" the president tweeted on June 13. "There is no longer a
Nuclear Threat from North Korea."
Following their meeting, the first between a sitting US president and a North
Korean leader, Trump and Kim signed a joined document, committing to
establishing new relations and achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula.
After signing the document with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un on Singapore’s
Sentosa Island, US President Donald Trump said denuclearization on the Korean
Peninsula would begin "very quickly.”
Before signing the document, Kim said the two leaders had "decided to leave the
past behind” and that "the world will see a major change.”
Trump said he had formed a "very special bond” with Kim and that Washington’s
relationship with Pyongyang would be very different.
While the summit was seen as a test for diplomacy that could end the
long-running nuclear standoff, foreign policy experts have warned that the
stakes are still high for an armed conflict if diplomacy fails.
The US seeks the complete and irreversible dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear
program. Pyongyang is demanding a solid guarantee of its security and the
removal of Washington’s nuclear umbrella protecting allies South Korea and
Japan.
Source:PRESSTV