US confirms it has suspended North Korea 240,000 tonnes of food aid plans.

US confirms it has suspended North Korea 240,000 tonnes of food aid plans.(BBC).The decision comes after Pyongyang announced a new rocket launch, which the United States says breaks the terms of a deal agreed last month. Earlier reports that the food aid plans had been put on hold were confirmed by a Pentagon official on Wednesday. Peter Lavoy told lawmakers North Korea had violated a missile test moratorium agreement and could not be trusted to deliver the aid properly. Under the deal signed in February, North Korea agreed to a partial freeze in nuclear activities and a missile test moratorium in return for US food aid. Mr Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific affairs, told a government committee that next month's planned rocket launch "reflects [North Korea's] lack of desire to follow through on their international commitments and so we've been forced to suspend our activities to provide nutritional assistance". North Korea claims the launch - which is scheduled for between April 12-16 - is only a satellite and is for scientific purposes. But the US and North Korea's neighbours insist it will be a long-range missile test, breaking the terms of last month's agreement. The US has not delivered food aid to North Korea since 2009, but sent officials to Pyongyang's ally China earlier this month to finalise plans to re-start food deliveries.
North Korea has suffered persistent food shortages since a famine in the 1990s, and relies on foreign aid to feed its people. The planned 240,000 tonnes of food aid from the US was to go to children and pregnant women.
Most Americans do not realize this, but the Korean war never actually ended. A ceasefire brought the military conflict to a conclusion in 1953, but there was never a peace treaty. For nearly 60 years, the two sides have been staring each other down along the 38th parallel. All during that time, North Korea has been arming itself to the teeth. North Korea is a nation that is absolutely obsessed with the military and that is absolutely obsessed with destroying the United States.
Most Americans don’t spend much time thinking about North Korea, but most North Koreans are focused on the United States every single day. We are constantly held up as the great enemy, and North Koreans are taught that one day they will defeat us. Today, North Korea has thousands of missile batteries and the largest artillery force in the world. If war with North Korea erupts, Seoul would be flattened within minutes. Right now, there are approximately 24.5 million people living either in or around Seoul, and that makes it the second largest metropolitan area in the entire world. Even if North Korea did not nuke Seoul, the devastation caused by thousands of rockets and the largest artillery force on the planet would be unimaginable. North Korea also has a navy with more than 700 vessels, the largest submarine fleet on the entire globe and a fleet of about 1,650 aircraft. But most importantly, North Korea has nukes. Everyone agrees that North Korea has conducted nuclear tests and that they have an arsenal of nuclear weapons, but nobody really knows how big that arsenal is. It is believed that the latest long-range missiles that North Korea has developed have the ability to reach the west coast of the United States, which is a very frightening thought.North Korea is no joke. North Korea has the ability to take out Seoul or Tokyo at any time. A military conflict with North Korea could plunge the world into a devastating economic collapse in just a matter of days.Read the full story here,more here.
National Geographic once did an amazing documentary on what life is like inside North Korea.Part one of Six.


 



Part Two of Six.