South Korea will suspend humanitarian aid to North Korea temporarily, the Ministry of Unification (MoU) stated on Wednesday at a press briefing, citing the continuous provocations by Pyongyang.

The ministry said it is not clear whether humanitarian aid had been diverted for political purposes.

“The government is maintaining the policy of providing support for social minorities, but ceasing humanitarian communications under an extreme situation is inevitable,” MoU spokesperson Jung Joon-hee told journalists.

The remarks came one day after President Park Geun-hye’s speech at the National Assembly, in which she called for stronger sanctions on North Korea.

“Since the mid-1990s, the