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US to ban citizens from travel to North Korea after Otto Warmbier's death US to ban citizens from travel to North Korea after Otto Warmbier's death
(about 2 hours later)
The US government will soon ban its citizens from travelling to North Korea, the state department said on Friday. The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has authorized a ban on American travel to North Korea that could go into effect as early as late August.
The announcement follows the death of Otto Warmbier, a US student who was arrested and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor while visiting North Korea. He was released in June in a coma and died in hospital in Cincinnati days after being medically evacuated. It follows the death of Otto Warmbier, a US student who was detained in North Korea last year and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, accused of stealing a poster from his hotel. Warmbier was returned to the US in a coma last month and died days later.
A state department spokesperson, Heather Nauert, said: “Due to mounting concerns over the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement,” US passports would be invalid for travel to, through and in North Korea. A state department spokesperson, Heather Nauret, said in a statement that Tillerson had implemented the ban “due to mounting concerns over the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement”.
Individuals will be required to obtain a passport with a special validation in order to travel to or within North Korea. The state department confirmed Tillerson had authorized the ban, known as a Geographical Travel Restriction (GTR), after two Beijing-based tourism companies said they had been warned about the incoming restriction.
“The safety and security of US citizens overseas is one of our highest priorities,” Nauert said. Hundreds of Americans travel to North Korea each year, but they have only been allowed to do so with an organized tour group. With the GTR, even that limited form of travel will be made illegal.
Nauerte said the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, had decided to implement a “geographical travel restriction” for North Korea, which would make the use of US passports to enter the country illegal. The GTR law allows the secretary of state to unilaterally implement a travel ban and has been used in the past 50 years to stop Americans from traveling to Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Cuba and Libya.
She added that the restriction would come into effect 30 days after a notice is published in the Federal Register, a government publication, next week. Once the ban comes into force, US passports will be invalid for travel to and through North Korea. Americans who violate the ban could be prosecuted, though a state department official said prosecutions for that crime were rare.
Nauert said some US citizens seeking to to travel to North Korea for “certain limited humanitarian or other purposes” would be able to apply the state department for an exception to the ban. In May, the House Democrat Adam Schiff and his Republican colleague Joe Wilson introduced a similar ban on travel to North Korea in Congress. The bill is due to be marked up in committee this month.
News of the ban was first announced by two travel agencies that operate tours in North Korea. Koryo Tours said the ban would be announced on 27 July and would go into effect 30 days later. Schiff said he was pleased to see the state department introduce the restrictions. “After the horrific treatment of Otto Warmbier, only the latest American detained by the regime, limiting US travel is unfortunately sensible and necessary,” Schiff said in a statement.
Another tour operator, Young Pioneer Tours, said in a tweet that it had also been informed of the ban, citing the same date. The state department said it planned to publish a notice of the GTR in the government’s Federal Register next week. The restriction will be implemented 30 days after the notice is published.
#BREAKING We have just been informed that US authorities will no longer allow US citizens to travel to the DPRK 30 days after July 27th Americans who seek to travel to North Korea for “certain limited humanitarian or other purposes” will be able to apply for a special validation through the state department.
Young Pioneer Tours was the agency that took Warmbier to North Korea. The secretary of state can implement a GTR if he determines one of three conditions are met: the country is at war with the US, armed hostilities are occurring in the country or there is imminent danger to US travelers in the country.
Warmbier’s parents, Fred and Cindy, said his death was a result of “the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans”. Since the 1960s, GTRs have been implemented in Iran (1980-1981); Lebanon (1987-1997); Iraq (1991-2003); Libya (1981-2004) and Cuba (1963-1977).
Warmbier was arrested at Pyongyang airport in January 2016 for allegedly taking a propaganda poster from his hotel room, where he had been staying as part of an organized tour. The GTR is stricter than travel restrictions that have been in place for Americans traveling to Cuba since the embargo.
The University of Virginia student wept at his sentencing, saying: “I have made the worst mistake of my life.” The trial reportedly lasted less than an hour. Before Barack Obama and Raul Castro eased diplomatic relations between the two countries in December 2015, Americans could only visit Cuba in an organized tour group.
The cooling of relations allowed Americans to travel independently in Cuba, as long as they proved they were there for an educational exchange – sunbathing was not recommended, but also not closely monitored.
Under Donald Trump, that changed.
In June, the White House reintroduced restrictions that only allow Americans to travel with an organized group. The administration has said this will be strictly enforced.
It was similar to the restrictions for tourists to North Korea. Tour companies that have supervised Americans on their trip to the authoritarian country were warned about the GTR before it was announced publicly.
Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours, both based in Beijing, said on Friday the US government had told them US citizens would no longer be allowed to travel to North Korea.
“This news has been expected but nevertheless is something of a shock, and we’re sorry for anyone who had planned a trip or who had hoped to visit and who now will not be permitted to do so,” Koryo Tours said in a statement.
Young Pioneer Tours organized Otto Warmbier’s tour and had already stopped taking Americans on its tours after having deemed the risk “too high”.
Americans have also been able to step into North Korea during tours on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily militarized border between the countries.
The border is staffed heavily with American military members, who lead tours that take visitors right up to the border of North Korea in a bus and let them step on to the North Korea side of border negotiation rooms, depending on the state of diplomatic tensions at the time of the tour.
The USO said it had restricted part of the tour because of “the current development between South and North Korea”, but did not respond to requests for comment on the impact of the GTR.