“Any US national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government, ” tour company was told
A senior Trump administration official has confirmed to CBS News that the U. S. government will ban American citizens from traveling to North Korea from the end of August.
The official said the State Department would soon release details of the ban, the prospect of which first surfaced early Friday morning when a tour operator that runs organized trips to the North said it had been told the ban was imminent.
Young Pioneer Tours, the company with which American student Otto Warmbier traveled to North Korea, released a statement via Twitter that said the ban would come into force within 30 days of July 27. The administration official who spoke to CBS News’ Major Garrett confirmed that timeline.
“After the 30 day grace period any US national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government, ” the Young Pioneer statement said.
According to the Reuters news agency, another tour operator which runs trips into North Korea, Koryo Tours, also said they had been told about the looming ban, adding that they did not know how long it would last.
Otto Warmbier, an American student at University of Virginia, was medically evacuated after being freed by North Korea after having been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
He was accused by the North Korean government of trying to steal a propaganda banner and was convicted of subversion.
