Yes, I know. That is why I would ask for a public announcement on NK TV with wording to be mutually agreed upon in advance, to avoid exactly that problem.
That sort of stuff has been proposed in the past, and the North Koreans always balk. The leadership of the country knows it's not going to survive a change in government and is willing to let millions starve if it's necessary to stay in power.
Giving Nietzsche's bio-metaphysical claim of a "will to power" a bit more empirical ground (in the order of the millions starving) to stand on.
Then NK just intentionally impedes food delivery while cheerfully playing the required TV message. US still looks bad. We just can't go through a hostile 3rd party.
I don't understand. Why would NK impeding the deliveries make the US look bad?
Because the US lied about giving them food, why else would the food not be there?
NK doesn't have to tell their citizen they are purposely impeding the food deliveries to make the US look bad. They can lie and say it's typical American incompetence.