U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday renewed a longstanding national emergency series with respect to North Korea, telling Congress in a letter that the extension was necessary due to the DPRK’s continued “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States.

In a notice and subsequent letter to Congress, the President “found that it was necessary to maintain certain restrictions with respect to North Korea that would otherwise have been lifted,” meaning sanctions contingent on the national emergency designation would continue.

The bevy of restrictions, beginning with the national emergency’s declaration by Executive Order (EO) 13466 in 2008, have grown under