US Bans Tourist Travel to North Korea

Local Editor

The United States issued a ban on Wednesday prohibiting its citizens from traveling to North Korea, a move triggered by the death of a US student imprisoned by Pyongyang during a tourist visit.

The ban, which comes into effect September 1, was introduced after officials said the "serious risk" of arrest by Pyongyang officials during tourist travel presented an "imminent danger to the physical safety" of its citizens.

"All United States passports are declared invalid for travel to, in, or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel," read the restriction in the US government's Federal Register, using the acronym for North Korea's official name.

Strict warnings against travel to the North were already in place before the ban was first announced last month following the death of American student Otto Warmbier.

Warmbier, 22, a student at the University of Virginia, died in June after being held by Pyongyang for more than a year on charges of stealing a propaganda poster from a North Korean hotel.

He had been sentenced to 15 years' hard labor in the North, but was sent home in a mysterious coma in June and died soon afterwards.

The new ban will remain in effect for one year, unless it is revoked sooner by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Exemptions will be allowed in specific cases for humanitarian travel and journalists.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team