The United States will ban Americans from traveling to North Korea in the coming weeks due to the «serious risk of arrest and long-term detention, » the U. S
The United States will ban Americans from traveling to North Korea in the coming weeks due to the “serious risk of arrest and long-term detention, ” the U. S. State Department said Friday, a month after U. S. college student Otto Warmbier died following his imprisonment by the isolated nation.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had authorized a “Geographical Travel Restriction” on all U. S. nationals’ use of a passport for travel to North Korea.
“Once in effect, U. S. passports will be invalid for travel to, through and in North Korea, and individuals will be required to obtain a passport with a special validation in order to travel to or within North Korea, ” she said.
Nauert added that the restriction would be published in the Federal Register next week.
It “will be implemented 30 days after publication of the Federal Register notice announcing the restriction, ” she said, adding that Americans who wanted to travel to North Korea “for certain limited humanitarian or other purposes” could apply for special passports.
Two travel operators, including China-based Koryo Tours, which bills itself as the biggest such company among a handful of firms offering trips to North Korea, earlier said they had been notified of the ban by the Swedish Embassy, which handles U. S. affairs in the North.
The U. S. has no diplomatic relations with the North and relies on the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang as its “protective power” with the North Korean government.
The other firm, Young Pioneer Tours, which took Warmbier to North Korea on his fateful trip and is also headquartered in China, said in a statement on its website that it, too, had been notified of the looming ban.
“We have just been informed that the U. S. government will no longer be allowing U. S. citizens to travel to the DPRK (North Korea) , ” the firm said in its statement.
“It is expected that the ban will come into force within 30 days of July 27th, ” it said. “After the 30 day grace period any U. S. national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government.”
North Korea marks the anniversary of the 1953 armistice agreement that ended the Korean War on July 27, a national holiday in the communist country.
Foreign tourists, including Americans, are allowed to visit the North but must go with a tour company. U. S. citizens must take a plane to the country, with the vast majority of all nationalities traveling through Beijing. Travel is strictly limited once in the North.
Under the ban, however, visitors could still cheat to enter the North, according to Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former U. S. Treasury official.
“Cheating the travel ban is a question of implementation, ” he said. “What safeguards will State put in place to prevent cheating?”
U. S. nationals, Ruggiero said, would be gaming the system at the risk of losing their passports and other penalties. “People will have to weigh those consequences, ” he added.
Simon Cockerell, the general manager of Koryo Tours, told The Japan Times that his company, which takes the most Americans to the country, had been notified directly by the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang.
