US cuts off food aid to N Korea

The United States will not provide food aid to North Korea after the nation tried to launch a long-range missile, which Washington had warned would have consequences. “First of all, what this administration has done is broken the cycle of rewarding provocative actions by the North Koreans that we’ve seen in the past,” National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Under the previous administration, for instance, there was a substantial amount of assistance provided to North Korea.” President Barack Obama’s administration had made a preliminary agreement with North Korea in February, saying that it would provide North Korea with food aid if it abandoned its nuclear ambitions. “But we also made clear that we could not go forward with that type of agreement if they could not keep their commitments, and their efforts to launch a missile clearly demonstrates that they could not be trusted to keep their commitments. Therefore, we’re not going forward with an agreement to provide them with any assistance. We have not provided them with any assistance, and it’s impossible to see how we can move forward with the February agreement given the action that they’ve taken,” Rhodes said.