President Trump plans to unveil a “massive” new set of sanctions against North Korea on Friday, an administration official told reporters.
The president plans to make the announcement during his address to the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington.
“I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime,” Trump said in prepared remarks.
Trump is set to speak shortly after 10 a.m. ET.
He plans to announce the Treasury Department will take action to “further cut off sources of revenue and fuel that the regime uses to fund its nuclear program and sustain its military by targeting 56 vessels, shipping companies, and trade businesses that are assisting North Korea in evading sanctions.”
In the address, Trump also plans to discuss last week’s school mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., while calling for policy changes.
“When we declare our schools to be gun-free zones it just puts our students in more danger – well-trained gun-adept teachers and coaches should be able to carry concealed firearms. We should do what works,” he plans to say. “This includes commonsense measures that will protect the rights of law-abiding Americans while helping to keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a danger to themselves and to others.”
The sanctions announcement follows Vice President Pence’s trip to South Korea for the opening of the Olympic Winter Games, where he sat just seats away from Kim Jong Un’s sister.
Speaking at CPAC on Thursday, Pence made clear the U.S. continues to take a firm stance against Pyongyang’s nuclear program and the regime.
“I say the United States of America doesn’t stand with murderous dictatorships, we stand up to murderous dictatorships, and we will keep standing strong until North Korea stops threatening our country, our allies or until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missiles once and for all,” Pence said.
The vice president also slammed the media for its at-times positive coverage of the North Korean dictator’s sister, Kim Yo Jong.
“For all the media fawning over the sister of the North Korean dictator, I think it’s important that every American knows who this person is and what she’s done,” Pence said Thursday. “The sister of Kim Jong Un is a central pillar of the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet, an evil family clique that brutalizes, subjugates, starves and imprisons its 25 million people.”
Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump and the U.S. delegation arrived in South Korea on Friday to attend the closing ceremony of the Olympics.
“My daughter, Ivanka, just arrived in South Korea. We cannot have a better, or smarter, person representing our country,” President Trump tweeted on Friday.
