Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump triggered rampant confusion among his own aides and administration officials when he said Friday he is withdrawing new sanctions aimed at North Korea that were just issued by his own administration. "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. The White House declined to give details on the sudden policy shift, but said Trump was pulling back newly-issued sanctions because he "likes" North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. It was not immediately clear which sanctions Trump was referring to. But just 24 hours earlier, the Treasury Department announced sanctions targeting two Chinese shipping companies that have allegedly helped North Korea skirt sanctions imposed by the United Nations.

Source: CNN March 22, 2019 18:11 UTC