President Donald Trump prompted confusion Friday when he claimed he was reversing sanctions against North Korea he said were announced earlier in the day.
"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 proclaimed on Twitter. "I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!"
But the Treasury issued no new North Korean sanctions on Friday, only filing economic penalties against Iranian entities and individuals for their work on the country's nuclear program.
The department did issue sanctions against a pair of Chinese shipping firms on Thursday for allegedly helping Pyongyang circumvent sanctions.
But it is unclear if that is what Trump was referring to in his social media post.
The White House further contributed to the mystery over the president's Twitter message.
"President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn't think these sanctions will be necessary," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement that did not note which sanctions are being addressed.
Trump and Kim have previously met twice in historic summits for the longtime rival nations. But the last meeting ended abruptly and without a long-sought agreement to advance progress on Washington's aim of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
