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<\/b>
\nThe United States will ban Americans from traveling to North Korea in the coming weeks due to the \u201cserious risk of arrest and long-term detention, \u201d 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 \u201cGeographical Travel Restriction\u201d on all U. S. nationals\u2019 use of a passport for travel to North Korea.
\u201cOnce 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, \u201d she said.
Nauert added that the restriction would be published in the Federal Register next week.
It \u201cwill be implemented 30 days after publication of the Federal Register notice announcing the restriction, \u201d she said, adding that Americans who wanted to travel to North Korea \u201cfor certain limited humanitarian or other purposes\u201d 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 \u201cprotective power\u201d 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.
\u201cWe have just been informed that the U. S. government will no longer be allowing U. S. citizens to travel to the DPRK (North Korea) , \u201d the firm said in its statement.
\u201cIt is expected that the ban will come into force within 30 days of July 27th, \u201d it said. \u201cAfter the 30 day grace period any U. S. national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government.\u201d
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.
\u201cCheating the travel ban is a question of implementation, \u201d he said. \u201cWhat safeguards will State put in place to prevent cheating?\u201d
U. S. nationals, Ruggiero said, would be gaming the system at the risk of losing their passports and other penalties. \u201cPeople will have to weigh those consequences, \u201d 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.
Cockerell said the ban would be a \u201cpity, \u201d adding that it would have implications beyond just ending American participation in the tours. Tourists from other countries, he said, would likely be \u201cput off\u201d by the move.
And while the ban would likely be bad for business, Cockerell said it would cut off a key chance for North Koreans to see Westerners and Americans outside of the regime\u2019s portrayals in its propaganda.
\u201cEvery portrayal in the North Korean media of foreigners, especially Americans, is really, really negative \u2014 to a degree that we would consider comical, \u201d he said.
\u201cNow, nobody will interact with any Americans. They will only see propaganda about Americans. This is the information they are given and this is what most people buy into, \u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a pity. It\u2019s a soft power opportunity that has been thrown away.\u201d
Mintaro Obe, a former U. S. diplomat working on Asia policy, said the argument that tourism could lead to a softening of views of Americans was based on false presumptions.
\u201cI don\u2019 t agree with the \u2018soft power\u2019 argument at all as North Koreans who are exposed to Americans are usually in Pyongyang, where elites in good standing with the regime live, \u201d Obe said. \u201cMinders are present throughout interactions, \u201d meaning Americans aren\u2019 t allowed to roam around freely, meeting ordinary North Koreans.
According to Sue Mi Terry, a former senior analyst on North Korea at the CIA and currently managing director for Korea at the Bower Group Asia, any attempt by visiting Americans to share information about the outside world \u201cwould get everyone involved arrested.\u201d
\u201cSo ending their travel would not have any impact on ordinary North Koreans, \u201d Terry said.
Western tourism to North Korea first began to grow around 2009, according to tour operators. Most travel agencies estimate there are now between 4,000 to 6,000 such visitors each year, including 800 to 1,000 Americans.
News of the ban comes just over a month to the date when Warmbier died at the age of 22 in the U. S., less than a week after being released by the North in a coma.
Prior to his release, Warmbier had been serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor for \u201canti-state\u201d acts \u2014 he allegedly tried to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel \u2014 during a short trip there at the end of 2015. The University of Virginia student was arrested on Jan. 2,2016, and sentenced in March that year.
Warmbier had been comatose for more than a year, since shortly after a final public appearance at his show trial in Pyongyang, according to North Korean officials who claimed he contracted botulism and was given a sleeping pill, from which he never woke up.
His parents reject this claim, saying that he had instead been subjected to \u201cawful torturous mistreatment\u201d by the North Koreans. U. S. doctors who examined him said they uncovered no traces of botulism or beatings.
In the North\u2019s first comments after Warmbier\u2019s death, state media called his passing \u201ca mystery\u201d and labeled the country as \u201cthe biggest victim of this incident.\u201d
Three other Americans are still believed to be held by the North: Kim Sang-duk, who also goes by the name Tony Kim, and Kim Hak-song \u2014 both academics who worked at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology \u2014 and businessman Kim Dong Chul.
A Canadian pastor and three South Korean nationals who were doing missionary work are also being held in the country. Japan says North Korea has also detained at least several dozen of its nationals, but Pyongyang either denies this or claims those held have long since died.
Washington has accused Pyongyang of holding American nationals as bargaining chips in negotiations with the United States over the country\u2019s nuclear weapons program.
Pyongyang has conducted a spate of missile tests this year \u2014 including one of an intercontinental ballistic missile believed to be capable of striking parts of the U. S.
Likely more important than any economic effects the ban may have on the North, it is being implemented \u201cto prevent Pyongyang from seizing more Americans as bargaining chips, \u201d Terry said.
\u201cThe North has long played this game to its advantage, taking Americans prisoner and only freeing them after humiliating the U. S. and extracting some concessions, even if only high-level visits to the North by American envoys, \u201d she said.
\u201cThere is no good reason why the U. S. should cooperate with this protection racket by providing a steady supply of hostages.\u201d
In May, the U. S. issued a travel warning for North Korea, strongly urging its citizens not to travel to the country.
The North \u201cimposes unduly harsh sentences for actions that would not be considered crimes in the United States and threatens U. S. citizen detainees with being treated in accordance with \u2018wartime law of the DPRK,\u2019 \u201d the State Department said in the warning.
It noted that at least 16 U. S. citizens had been detained in the North over the last decade, including \u201cthose who traveled independently and those who were part of organized tours.\u201d
Prior to Warmbier\u2019s death, Reps. Joe Wilson and Adam Schiff had sponsored a bipartisan bill to outlaw most U. S. travel to North Korea for five years. The legislation would ban tourism travel altogether and require Americans who do visit the country to get a license from the Treasury Department.
That bill was sent before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in late May and is scheduled for markup on July 27.
Sen. John McCain, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, suggested after Warmbier\u2019s death that Americans who want to visit North Korea should sign a waiver to acknowledge the risk and Washington\u2019s inability to intervene if they require assistance.
\u201cIf people are that stupid that they still want to go to that country then at least they assume the responsibility for their welfare, \u201d McCain said at the time.<\/p>\n