The U.S. government excluded North Korea from the list of candidate countries for foreign aid next year.
Voice of America (VOA) said on the 3rd (local time), citing the candidate country report by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. foreign aid agency to be published in the Federal Register, that North Korea was excluded from the list of candidate countries for foreign aid for fiscal year 2027.
Including North Korea, 13 countries such as Iran and Afghanistan were classified as ineligible to receive U.S. foreign aid.
North Korea is classified every year as a country that cannot receive assistance due to various restrictions under U.S. law.
The MCC cited the state of human trafficking as one reason for restricting foreign aid to North Korea. The U.S. State Department classifies North Korea in the lowest tier in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report.
The MCC is a U.S. government agency established in 2004 that selects candidate countries to support economic growth in developing nations and provides economic aid in the form of subsidies.