WASHINGTON — American citizens will be barred from traveling to North Korea 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.
"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," department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
The restriction will take effect in late August, 30 days after it is published as a legal notice in the Federal Register sometime next week.
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.
It did not elaborate on what "other purposes" the department would consider to be legitimate for travel to North Korea.
It wasn't clear how many Americans the move will effect, as figures about how many Americans go to North Korea are difficult for even the U.S. government to obtain. The U.S. strongly warns Americans against traveling to North Korea, but has not until now prohibited it despite other sanctions targeting the country. Americans who venture there typically travel from China, where several tour groups market trips to adventure-seekers.
Barring Americans from setting foot in North Korea marks the latest U.S. step to isolate the furtive, nuclear-armed nation, and protect U.S. citizens who may be allured by the prospect of traveling there. Nearly all Americans who have gone to North Korea have left without incident. But some have been seized and given draconian sentences for seemingly minor offenses.
The travel ban comes as the Trump administration searches for more effective ways to ramp up pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang's recent successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile — the first by the North — has created even more urgency as the U.S. seeks to stop North Korea before it can master the complex process of putting a nuclear warhead atop a missile capable of hitting the United States.
President Donald Trump has expressed frustration that his initial strategy — enlisting China's help and influence to squeeze the North economically and diplomatically — has not yielded major results. Trump's administration is also considering other economic steps including "secondary sanctions" that could target companies and banks — mostly in China — that do even legitimate business with North Korea, officials said.
Under U.S. law, the secretary of state has the authority to designate passports as restricted for travel to countries with which the United States is at war, when armed hostilities are in progress, or when there is imminent danger to the public health or physical security of United States travelers. Geographical travel restrictions are rare but have been used by numerous administrations in the past for countries where it has been determined to be unsafe.
Since 1967, such bans have been imposed intermittently on countries such as Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Cuba and North Vietnam. But the U.S. doesn't currently prohibit its passports from being used to travel to any countries, even though financial restrictions limit U.S. travel to Cuba and elsewhere.
Americans who violate the restriction could face a fine and up to 10 years in prison for a first offense.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.