U.S. President Donald Trump has announced via Twitter that he has ordered the withdrawal of new sanctions on North Korea.
His Friday tweet said "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. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!"
There was initial confusion over Trump's tweet.
It was unclear whether he was referring to the sanctions the U.S. Treasury Department imposed Thursday on two Chinese shipping companies, and he mistakenly wrote "today" instead of "yesterday."
The Washington Post later reported, citing officials familiar with the matter, that Trump was referring to future sanctions that had been scheduled for the coming days.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a message to reporters that President Trump likes Chairman Kim, referring to the North Korean leader, and he doesn't think these sanctions will be necessary.
This is Trump's first remark on North Korea after Pyongyang's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui declared earlier this month Pyongyang was considering ending nuclear negotiations with Washington.
Hours after the Treasury sanctions were announced, North Korea pulled its officials from the inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Gaeseong, citing an order from upper leadership.