government will ban its citizens from traveling to North Korea after a student died shortly after returning home from the isolated nation, according to the travel agency that arranged that trip.
"We have just been informed that the U. government will no longer be allowing US citizens to travel to the DPRK," Young Pioneer Tours said in a statement Friday. The company added that the ban will come into force 30 days after July 27 and any U. national who travels to the country will have their passports invalidated after the 30-day grace period. informed the China-based firm of the decision, the statement said. Rowan Beard of Young Pioneer Tours said by email that the ban has yet to be officially confirmed.
The death last month of Otto Warmbier, who had been imprisoned for more than a year in North Korea, caused a public furor in the U., bringing home the threat posed by North Korea to average citizens more than dozens of ballistic missile and nuclear tests. President Donald Trump denounced the death of 22-year-old, saying he suffered at the hands of a “brutal regime.”
Koryo Tours, another company that offers tours to North Korea, said the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang informed it of the ban. The embassy didn’t respond to a phone call seeking comment. The mission acts a "protecting power" and an intermediary between North Korea and the U., which have no official relations.
Hard Labor
Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016 for trying to steal a political banner. He was in a coma when he was medically evacuated to his home state.
After Warmbier’s death, Trump said on Twitter that China had failed to rein in North Korea, which prompted Beijing to hit back, saying it’s efforts against its eastern neighbor had been “indispensable.”
North Korea denied torturing Warmbier, calling his death a mystery. The state-run Korean Central News Agency said the country provided him “medical treatments and care with all sincerity on humanitarian basis.
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