Beijing ? The World Food Program will halt humanitarian food aid to 6 million North Koreans at the end of this month because the North Korean government says it now has enough food to feed its hungry people, the WFP director said Thursday.

The closure of the World Food Program’s humanitarian assistance comes as North Korea expels about a dozen nongovernmental aid groups after European condemnation of its human rights record. The North Korea dictatorship holds political prisoners and denies its citizens basic rights. The United States and regional partners want the isolated and secretive nation to give up its nuclear weapons programs.

The halting of the World Food Program aid appears to be the result of North Korean paranoia about foreigners wandering about in the country, increased economic aid from South Korea and China, and an uptick in agricultural output.

Recent harvests have improved North Korea’s food situation, prompting its government to demand that the Rome-based World Food Program switch its focus in the country from feeding people to development assistance, such as construction and jobs programs.

“The government there has concluded that it no longer needs emergency humanitarian assistance,” James Morris, the World Food Program director, said at a news conference, adding that government officials think “they essentially have the food they need.”

Morris said his agency thinks “there still is a food shortage in the country,” and that as many as a third of North Korean women remain anemic and in need of nutritional help.