(MENAFN- Gulf Times) AFP/Washington
The United States confirmed on Friday that it plans to ban its nationals from travelling to North Korea, in the wake of the death of an American student who was imprisoned by Pyongyang during a tourist visit.
Travel agencies organising trips to the isolated country had said earlier on Friday they were informed of the impending change.
Strict warnings against travel to North Korea had already been in place, but Washington toughened its stance after the death in June of Otto Warmbier.
The 22-year-old University of Virginia student was imprisoned for more than a year on charges of stealing a propaganda poster from a North Korean hotel -- and sent home in a mysterious coma that proved fatal.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the new restriction would be formally published in the government's Federal Register next week, and take effect one month later.
"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 citizen nationals' use of a passport to travel in, through, or to North Korea," Nauert said.
"Once in effect, US passports will be invalid for travel to, through and in North Korea," she said.
Those seeking authorisation for travel for "certain limited humanitarian or other purposes" would only be able to do so with a "special validation passport," the spokeswoman added.
"The safety and security of US citizens overseas is one of our highest priorities."
After Warmbier's death, President Donald Trump said he was determined to "prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency."
Bad for tour business
China-based Young Pioneer Tours, which had taken Warmbier to North Korea, and Koryo Tours said the ban will be published on July 27 -- the anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
"We have just been informed that the US government will no longer be allowing US citizens to travel to the DPRK (North Korea)," Young Pioneer Tours said on its website.
Young Pioneer Tours had already said it would no longer take Americans to North Korea in the wake of Warmbier's death.
Koryo Tours general manager Simon Cockerell told AFP that his company had been notified by the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which usually acts on behalf of the United States in North Korea since Washington has no diplomatic ties with the isolated regime.
The official announcement "will basically end American tourism" in North Korea, said Cockerell, whose company currently takes between 300-400 Americans to the country each year.
While the decision will be bad for business, he said he sees it as more damaging to "North Koreans who are interested in having a balanced portrayal of what Americans are really like."
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