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US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in front of the White House before heading to Ohio on Mar. 20.

A tweet by US President Donald Trump regarding the withdrawal of additional sanctions against North Korea has emerged as a surprise variable in the dialogue climate between the two sides, which has been souring since their recent Hanoi summit ended without producing an agreement. Observers are now watching to see if it can serve as a firewall to prevent additional worsening of the Korean Peninsula situation, which has already spread over into inter-Korean relations with North Korea’s withdrawal of personnel from the joint inter-Korean liaison office at Kaesong.

“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!” Trump wrote in a Twitter message on Mar. 22.

Trump’s message was initially received as reversing the Treasury Department’s decision a day earlier on Mar. 21 to add two Chinese shipping companies to the list of sanctions targets on suspicion of helping North Korea skirt sanctions. But a few hours after Trump’s tweet, US administration officials told the press that it had been intended not as a reversal of the sanctions on Mar. 21, but as an announcement that Trump did not plan to proceed with other sanctions that had originally been planned for future announcement. In other words, Trump put a stop to administration-level preparations for further large-scale sanctions against North Korea to follow those imposed on Mar. 21.

On the surface, Trump’s tweet about “no additional sanctions” echoed his message at a press conference soon after the summit in Hanoi on Feb. 28. But with the “post-Hanoi” situation taking a sharp turn for the worse recently, its significance was substantial.

In terms of its timing, Trump’s message came at a time of mounting tensions in both North Korea-US and inter-Korean relations. Since Hanoi, the US administration has been pressuring for a “big deal,” demanding the abandonment of all North Korean weapons of mass destruction and missiles as a precondition for sanctions relief. In a Mar. 15 press conference, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui hinted at a possible suspension of talks with the US; recently, Pyongyang expressed its objections by withdrawing staff from the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong.

Trump had previously remained quiet on North Korea, apart from remarking on Mar. 6–7 that he would be “very disappointed” if reports of launch preparation activity at its West (Yellow) Sea satellite launch site at Tongchang Village turned out to be true. With his first reference to the North in two weeks, his message was one of withdrawing sanctions. For this reason, some analysts are interpreting it as a conciliatory message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promising a stop to additional pressure tactics.

“It comes across as an emergency measure to prevent the situation from deteriorating,” suggested Cho Sung-ryul, former senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy, on Mar. 24. “Even if North Korea and the US aren’t returning to talks right away, the urgent order of business with President Trump’s tweet was to put out the immediate fire,” he said.

A South Korean government source similarly praised Trump for “squashing the growing hardline mood on North Korea in the US.”

With Trump reiterating the message that Washington does not plan to pursue additional sanctions on the North, hardliners within the administration – including National Security Advisor John Bolton – could find their room to maneuver constrained to some extent. It was certainly an awkward moment for Bolton, who himself had tweeted a message welcoming the additional Treasury Department sanctions.

Speaking to reporters about Trump’s tweet, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, “President Trump likes Chairman Kim and he doesn't think these sanctions will be necessary.” The message could be seen as indicating that Trump is still strongly committed to maintaining his format of “top-down” dialogue with Kim.

The key question now is how Pyongyang will react.

“North Korea could insist ‘this isn’t enough’ and push ahead [with objection measures against Washington], or it could take some time to consider things now that President Trump has given a pretext,” Cho said.

Koo Kab-woo, professor at the University of North Korean Studies, predicted there was “not likely to be” a response from the North.

“If North Korea does respond, it will be to the existing sanctions rather than this tweet,” Koo said, suggesting a relatively low likelihood of Pyongyang welcoming the message.

Trump’s sudden reversal of his own administration’s policy also offered a glimpse at major confusion. Because of the vague wording in his tweet, even White House and administration officials appeared confused over which sanctions he was referring to as being reversed or what the significance would be in policy terms.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

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