Trump declares DPRK still poses 'extraordinary threat'

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump declared Friday that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) still poses an "extraordinary threat" to the United States.

In an executive order, the president extended for one year the so-called "national emergency" with respect to the DPRK, re-authorizing economic restrictions against it.

The declaration comes just nine days after Trump tweeted, "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea," following his summit with DPRK leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

It states that "the existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material" and the actions and policies of the DPRK government "continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

The national emergency has been in place since 2008 and is a sign of the enduring tensions between the US and the DPRK that spiked last year as the DPRK moved closed to perfecting a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach American soil, but ebbed with the June 12 summit where Kim agreed to "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula.

AP