Politics
21:38, 02-Aug-2017
US starts DPRK travel ban from September 1
[]
Share
Copied
The US on Wednesday officially set a September 1 start date for a ban prohibiting its citizens from traveling to DPRK.
"The Department of State has determined that the serious risk to United States nationals of arrest and long-term detention represents imminent danger to the physical safety of United States nationals traveling to and within the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," read the restriction as it appeared Wednesday in the US government's Federal Register.
"All United States passports are declared invalid for travel to, in, or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel," it added.
US student Otto Frederick Warmbier (R), imprisoned by Pyongyang during a tourist visit, speaks at a press conference in Pyongyang, Feb. 29, 2016. /AFP Photo
US student Otto Frederick Warmbier (R), imprisoned by Pyongyang during a tourist visit, speaks at a press conference in Pyongyang, Feb. 29, 2016. /AFP Photo
An exemption was noted for approved humanitarian travel and for journalists in some circumstances. The ban is to remain in effect for one year unless it is revoked sooner by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
The travel ban was first announced last month in the wake of the death of American student Otto Warmbier who fell into a coma after being imprisoned by Pyongyang during a tourist visit.
Warmbier, 22, a student at the University of Virginia, died in June after being held for more than a year on charges of stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel in the DPRK and sent home in a mysterious coma that proved fatal.
(Source: AFP)
11159km