American citizens are to be ban from traveling to North Korea.
In a statement, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that the ban would be published next week in the Federal Register, to come into effect 30 days later.
US officials linked the move to the death of jailed American student Otto Warmbier.
Once the ban is in effect, US citizens will need special validation to travel to or within North Korea.
Otto Warmbier traveled to North Korea with Young Pioneer Tours. He was arrested in 2016 for trying to steal a propaganda sign and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was returned to the US in a coma in June and died a week later.
Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours, who both operate in North Korea, revealed on July 21 that they had been told of the upcoming ban by the Swedish embassy, which acts for the US as Washington has no diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.
Image source Wikimedia
It appears the embassy was urging all US nationals to depart immediately and was trying to check on the number of US tourists left in North Korea.
Heather Nauert’s statement said: “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 US nationals’ use of a passport to travelling through, or to North Korea.
“Once in effect, US 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.
“We intend to publish a notice in the Federal Register next week.
“The restriction will be implemented 30 days after publication.”
After the death of Otto Warmbier, the China-based Young Pioneer Tours announced it would no longer take visitors from the US to North Korea.
There has been movement towards a ban for a while in the US, which increased with the Warmbier death.
In May, two congressmen introduced the North Korea Travel Control bill to cut off the foreign currency the country earns from American tourists.
The House foreign affairs subcommittee is scheduled to take up the draft legislation on July 27 but it would still have to go to the Senate. So there could be an executive order.
Some are suggesting the US is using the date the ban is set to be announced – 27 July – to cloud North Korea’s Victory Day on the same day.
North Korea only relaxed its rules for American visitors in 2010.
The state department does not keep a record of the number of American tourists.
Tour operators suggest that up to 1,000 visit every year.
Otto Warmbier is now being treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center after the flight carrying him landed in Ohio on June 13.
He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel.
Otto Warmbier was given a sleeping pill after becoming ill after his trial in 2016 and did not wake up, North Korea said.
His parents, Fred and Cindy, said: “We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime.”
Former US ambassador and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, who has previously served as special envoy to North Korea and in 2016 attempted to negotiate Otto Warmbier’s release, said the student’s family had updated him on their son’s condition.
“In no uncertain terms, North Korea must explain the causes of his coma,” Bill Richardson said.
If Otto Warmbier’s illness is the direct result of brutality in prison, there might be pressure on President Trump to take action against Kim Jong-un’s regime.
Otto Warmbier is an economics student from the University of Virginia, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Otto Warmbier appeared emotional at a news conference a month later, in which he tearfully confessed to trying to take the sign as a “trophy” for a US church, adding: “The aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people.”
Foreign detainees in North Korea have previously recanted confessions, saying they were made under pressure.
In a statement on June 13, Otto Warmbier’s parents said: “Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March 2016. We learned of this only one week ago.”
They were quoted by the Washington Post as saying they had been told Otto Warmbier had contracted botulism, a rare illness that causes paralysis, soon after his trial in March 2016.
Otto Warmbier was given a sleeping pill and had been in a coma ever since, the newspaper said.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made no mention of Otto Warmbier’s condition in a statement, saying only that he was on his way home to be reunited with his family and would not make any further comment, out of respect for the privacy of the family.
Otto Warmbier appeared emotional at a news conference a month later, in which he tearfully confessed to trying to take the sign as a “trophy” for a US church, adding “the aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people”.
Foreign detainees in North Korea have previously recanted confessions, saying they were made under pressure.
His parents Fred and Cindy told CNN in early May that they had had no contact with their son for more than a year.
In a statement, Fred and Cindy Warmbier said: “Otto has left North Korea. He is on a Medivac flight on his way home.
“Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March 2016. We learned of this only one week ago.”
They were quoted by the Washington Post as saying they had been told their son had contracted botulism, a rare illness that causes paralysis, soon after his trial in March 2016.
Otto Warmbier was given a sleeping pill and had been in a coma ever since, the newspaper said.
Rex Tillerson made no mention of Otto Warmbier’s condition in his statement, saying only that he was on his way home to be reunited with his family and would not make any further comment, out of respect for the privacy of the family.
The US has in the past accused North Korea of detaining its citizens to use them as pawns in negotiations over its nuclear weapons program.
The arrests have come at a time of heightened tension between North Korea and the US and its regional neighbors.
Dennis Rodman is a friend of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and has made several visits to the country in recent years.
There was some speculation that Dennis Rodman might plead the case for the American detainees, but en route to North Korea the basketball star told reporters “my purpose is to actually see if I can keep bringing sports to North Korea”.
President Barack Obama has signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on North Korea, after its “illicit” nuclear test and satellite launch.
The executive order freezes North Korean government property in America and bans US exports to, or investment in, North Korea.
It also greatly expands powers to blacklist anyone, including non-Americans, dealing with North Korea.
The January 6 nuclear test and February 7 satellite launch were violations of existing UN sanctions.
Barack Obama’s order includes measures from the recently agreed UN Security Council sanctions – the toughest sanctions in decades against North Korea.
It also contains separate sanctions passed by Congress and enacted by the president in February.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said: “The US and the global community will not tolerate North Korea’s illicit nuclear and ballistic missile activities, and we will continue to impose costs on North Korea until it comes into compliance with its international obligations.”
Barack Obama said the sanctions “did not target the people of North Korea” but suggested that the country’s leadership only had itself to blame.
How much property North Korea has in the US is unknown, and trade between the two is tiny, but the expanded blacklist power is a significant stepping up of the punitive measures available to Washington.
It is also the first time the US has had a blanket ban on trade, as it once had with Iran and Myanmar.
Amid the heightened tensions, North Kroea sentenced American student Otto Warmbier to 15 years hard labor on March 16 for “severe crimes” against the state.
The US demanded North Korea immediately release Otto Warmbier, 21, who was arrested for trying to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel while on a visit in January.
Otto Warmbier has been given 15 years hard labor in North Korea for crimes against the state.
The 21-year-old American student was arrested for trying to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel while visiting North Korea in January.
Otto Warmbier later appeared on state TV apparently confessing and saying a church group had asked him to bring back a “trophy” from his trip.
North Korea sometimes uses the detention of foreigners as a means of exerting pressure on its adversaries.
The 15-year sentence is high compared to those given to foreigners in the past.
North Korean state news agency KCNA said Otto Warmbier was convicted under an article of the criminal code relating to subversion. The verdict was handed down by the Supreme Court.
Otto Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was arrested on January 2 as he was trying to leave North Korea. He was accused of committing “hostile acts”.
KCNA said at the time he had gone to North Korea “to destroy the country’s unity” and that he had been “manipulated” by the US government.
At the end of February, at a tearful press conference in Pyongyang, Otto Warmbier said he had “committed the crime of taking down a political slogan from the staff holding area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel”.
“The aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people. This was a very foolish aim,” Otto Warmbier was quoted as saying.
He said it was the “worst mistake” of his life.
The sentencing comes a day after veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson met North Korean officials at the UN in New York to try to push for Otto Warmbier’s release.
Bill Richardson has previously been involved in negotiations to secure the release of Americans from North Korea detention.
North Korea has ramped up its hostile rhetoric in recent weeks, after the UN imposed some of its toughest ever sanctions.
The sanctions were a response to North Korea conducting its fourth nuclear test and launching a satellite into space, which was seen as a covert test of banned missile technology.
Pyongyang has also been angered by the US and South Korea carrying out their annual military drills, which this year involve some 315,000 personnel.
American student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested in North Korea, has appeared on state media admitting to trying to steal a piece of propaganda from a hotel.
Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia student, said he was asked by a US church to bring back the “trophy”.
He had been on a tourist trip to North Korea in January.
Otto Warmbier was arrested on 2 January as he was about to leave.
At the time, North Korea said the US government had “tolerated and manipulated” the student.
Otto Warmbier was charged with committing a “hostile act”.
At a news conference in Pyongyang, Otto Warmbier said a member of the Friendship United Methodist Church had promised to give him a used car worth $10,000 if he brought back a propaganda sign from his North Korea trip.
“I committed the crime of taking down a political slogan from the staff holding area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel,” North Korea’s KCNA news agency quoted Otto Warmbier as saying.
“The aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people. This was a very foolish aim,” the student was quoted as saying.
Otto Warmbier said his crime was “very severe and pre-planned” and that he “never should have allowed myself to be lured by the US administration to commit a crime in this country”.
CNN, which received a copy of the video, said Otto Warmbier sobbed as he begged for forgiveness, saying he had made “the worst mistake of my life”.
It was not clear whether Otto Warmbier had made the statement voluntarily, but foreign detainees in North Korea have previously recanted confessions, saying they were made under pressure.
The US state department strongly advises Americans against travelling to North Korea, which sometimes uses the detention of foreigners as a means of exerting pressure on its adversaries.
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