Plan B Forum

State Department to ban Americans from traveling to North Korea

The State Department said Friday it will prohibit U.S. citizens from traveling to North Korea starting late next month, citing the risk of arrest and imprisonment by the authoritarian regime.

The move follows the death of an American student last month who was imprisoned for nearly 18 months in Pyongyang before he was flown home to Ohio in a coma.

The State Department long has advised Americans not to visit but the decision by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flatly bars use of U.S. passports "to travel in, through, or to North Korea," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Several hundred Americans visit North Korea each year on tour groups that specialize in the country. Some aid workers, journalists and academics also travel there.

Actions that are not criminal, or not major crimes, elsewhere can lead to harsh punishment under North Korea's totalitarian system. More than a dozen Americans have been arrested and detained since 2009, and three are still held there.

Nauert said Tillerson decided to ban U.S. travel to North Korea "due to mounting concerns over the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention" there.

"The safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas is one of our highest priorities," she added.

The restriction will be published next week in the Federal Register and take effect 30 days later. Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis for some humanitarian travel, Nauert said.