Preventing aid workers from helping sick and hungry North Koreans is not going to affect the regime’s negotiating position, but it will be another shameful example of seeking to exploit and exacerbate the suffering of civilians in the pursuit of unrealistic, maximalist demands.<\/b>
\nThe Trump administration\u2019s habit of inflicting punishment on the civilian population when it doesn\u2019t get what it wants has come to North Korea:
Preventing aid workers from helping sick and hungry North Koreans is not going to affect the regime\u2019s negotiating position, but it will be another shameful example of seeking to exploit and exacerbate the suffering of civilians in the pursuit of unrealistic, maximalist demands. Depriving charitable and non-profit organizations from providing assistance to malnourished and ill people isn\u2019t going to pressure the North Korean government into giving up any nuclear weapons, but it could cause unnecessary loss of life.
If Pompeo is willing to block aid to North Korea during negotiations, that doesn\u2019t bode well for the supposed humanitarian exemptions to Iran sanctions. The article quotes one of the doctors whose application was rejected:
Whether it is cutting aid that supplies food and medical care to Palestinians or it is trying to strangle the Iranian economy, the Trump administration consistently opts for cruelly punishing people that aren\u2019t responsible for the actions of foreign leaders that they don\u2019t like. Now it is barring humanitarian assistance to North Koreans in the bizarre expectation that this will change the regime\u2019s attachment to its nuclear arsenal. It isn\u2019t going to \u201cwork,\u201d and it is an awful tactic to use even if it might.<\/p>\n