On Thursday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two Chinese shipping companies that it said were delivering crude oil to North Korea in violation of international sanctions. On Friday, President Donald Trump rolled these sanctions back.
The move stunned former Treasury officials who worked on sanctions.
John Smith, the former director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said he was shocked by the president’s action and called it “a scandal.”
The Treasury Department didn’t reply to a message seeking comment.
“The president undercut the hard working men and women of his sanctions agency and senior political officials across the government that must have had a hand in approving this decision, all to benefit the leader of North Korea,” Smith said in an interview.
Trump’s February meeting in Hanoi with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended without a deal to denuclearize North Korea.
Smith served at OFAC for eleven years — spanning the younger Bush, Obama and Trump administrations — including three as director.
“It has long been the policy of the U.S. government that the U.S. would not ease sanctions on North Korea until the country dismantled their nuclear weapons program and the ballistic missile program that threatens not only South Korea but the West Coast of the United States. In one fell swoop, the president undercut that policy that has stretched across administrations,” Smith said.
Placing sanctions on foreign firms are implemented at the direction of the White House’s national security staff and have to receive written approval from the treasury secretary and the secretary of state.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders put Trump’s move in personal terms by saying: “President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.”
Earlier Friday, North Korea pulled its staff out of a joint liaison office that it had opened with South Korea in September. Analysts said this meant North Korea was miffed that the U.S. had not eased sanctions.
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Source : MTV
