After the infamous case of Otto Warmbier, The United States of America is all set to prevent its citizens from any harm by forbidding their citizens to travel to North Korea. Due to the dictatorship of North Korean head Kim Jong-un, the ties with the American government have deteriorated in the past few years. The death of Mr. Warmbrier was the final nail in the coffin for U.S. and North Korean relationships.
According to a report by the BBC, "State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that the ban would be published next week in the Federal Register, to come into effect 30 days later."
This information was originally disclosed on Friday by two travel agencies - Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours.
Both of the travel agencies work in North Korea. The travel agencies were informed about this move by the Swedish Embassy which carries out U.S. affairs in North Korea.
More on the North Korean tourism ban
According to Rowan Beard of Young Pioneer Tours travel agency, the Swedish Embassy in North Korea has been urging all the citizens of America to head back to their own country. He further added that the US government is trying to check the total number of American citizens left in the country.
Although there has been no official enactment if any ban yet by the American government, the state department strongly cautioned its citizens not to visit North Korea in an alert that was dated May 9, 2017.
Young Pioneer Tours also said that as far as he knows, if American national visits North Korea after the given period then their passports could be nullified.
About the Warmbier Case
Otto Warmbier, who was a 22-year-old student of Economics visiting North Korea was taken into custody by the state's police on the charge of taking a propaganda poster from a hotel.
He was arrested by the North Korean police on January 2, 2016, and was punished with fifteen years of hard labor.
In June 2017, the government of North Korea informed that Mr. Warmbier had been in a coma since last year after he became sick. He was sent back to America in June this year but even after enormous efforts by U.S.
doctors, the boy passed away.
The family of Mr. Warmbier completely dismissed the story told by North Korean government and stated that their child had been under "awful torturous mistreatment."
There are still some Americans in prison in North Korea, and the three of them are Korean-Americans. The BBC reported that the "US has in the past accused North Korea of detaining its citizens to use them as pawns in negotiations over its nuclear weapons programme."
