NORTH KOREA/SANCTIONS/SOUTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In an Oval Office meeting with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, President Donald Trump said Thursday [4-11-19] that he wants sanctions on North Korea to remain in place but doesn’t want to increase them…Trump’s mention of holding back on increasing sanctions appeared to be a reference to a tweet he sent last month saying he was withdrawing new measures aimed at North Korea that were just issued by his own administration. The tweet triggered confusion among his own aides and administration officials who were unsure what sanctions Trump was referring to and what the policy implications of the announcement might be. Trump’s meeting with Moon at the White House on Thursday comes after Kim issued a stark warning seemingly aimed at the US, saying North Korea needed to ‘deal a telling blow to the hostile forces who go with bloodshot eyes miscalculating that sanctions can bring the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to its knees,’ according to North Korean state media reports.”
–Zachary Cohen, “Trump says sanctions on North Korea are at a ‘fair level’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 11, 2019 9:38 pm