US bans travel for Americans to N. Korea

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

American citizens will be barred by the U.S. from traveling to North Korea beginning next month following a prohibition on using U.S. passports to enter the country, the State Department said Friday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson decided to impose a “geographical travel restriction” on North Korea following the death last month of American university student Otto Warmbier, who fell into a coma while in North Korean custody. The ban also comes amid heightened U.S. concern about Pyongyang’s recent advancements in its nuclear weapons and ballistic-missile programs.

Figures on how many Americans visit North Korea are difficult for even the U.S. government to obtain. But Simon Cockerell of the Koryo Group, one of the leading organizers of guided tours to the country, said 800 to 1,000 Americans go annually and will be affected.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement, “Due to mounting concerns over the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement, the secretary has authorized a Geographical Travel Restriction on all U.S. citizen nationals’ use of a passport to travel in, through or to North Korea.”

The restriction will take effect in late August, 30 days after it is published as a legal notice in the Federal Register.

Once it takes effect, Americans wanting to travel to North Korea may do so legally only with a “special validation passport,” which will be granted by the State Department on a case-by-case basis for “certain limited humanitarian or other purposes,” the statement said.