![US declared expanded travel ban. [Image by Adkdhc8 / Wikimedia Commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/9/25/660x290/b_502x220x82/us-declared-expanded-travel-ban-httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons88anarita-international-airport-terminal-2-counters-28129jpg_1591543.jpg "US declared expanded travel ban. [Image by Adkdhc8 / Wikimedia Commons]")
Kim Jong-un’s latest threats against America prompted the White House to announce an expanded travel ban against individuals from the North. This specifically followed Kim’s declaration of launching a nuclear missile directly towards the US mainland.
The ban that kicks out North Koreans
Experts believed that the White House’s expanded travel ban to Kim’s regime is symbolic, Telegraph reported. They said the ban would have a minor effect on North Korea, just like the successive UN sanctions that were not able to stop Kim’s regime from further conducting nuclear missile tests.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump signed the executive order that indefinitely bans individuals from the eight countries to enter America. All but one of the states covered by the original ban are still included in the new list, plus three more countries: North Korea, Venezuela and Chad.
Although the countries included in the expanded travel ban remain controversial, the timing of adding North Korea to the new list could never be more sensitive. It emerged in the middle of a prolonged confrontation between the United States and North Korea over the latter’s nuclear weapon programs.
Trump-Kim war of words
Just this month, the world witnessed a nuclear crisis devolve into name-calling between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Some UN members even described their conflict as a fight between two children.
In the context of this intensifying clash between the two leaders, the expanded travel ban may seem to be part of the Trump administration’s demarche to cut off North Korea from the rest of the world, The Times reported. However, experts remained skeptical about whether the provisions of the expanded travel ban will isolate Kim’s regime.
They believed that the ban could hardly achieve anything concrete at all.
Moreover, President Trump expressed the significance of the new executive order over Twitter.
Ironically, the expanded travel ban may not achieve its purpose of barring the people from Kim’s regime to travel to America since there is hardly any North Koreans who make the trip to the US.
An associate professor at Yonsei University in Seoul, John Delury, said the White House should have determined first if there really is North Korean immigration before banning it.
Moreover, according to Professor Delury, the new travel ban may be aimed at domestic travelers and not international ones. Initially, the travel ban was condemned for singling out Muslims. The Trump administration only added Venezuela and North Korea to divert the issue.
