North Korea tours will no longer be available to U.S. citizens as the American government will be banning travel to the said country. Travel companies Young Pioneer Tours and Koryo Tours confirmed this to Buzzfeed News on Friday.

The travel ban will be enforced within 30 days of July 27, according to both companies. The BBC also picked up the story and wrote, 'Associated Press news agency quoted US officials as saying that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had decided to implement a "geographical travel restriction" for North Korea, meaning the use of US passports to enter would be illegal.'

Email on North Korea travel ban

In the e-mail sent to Buzzfeed News, General Manager of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, Simon Cockerell, said the Swedish authorities informed them about the ban.

Pyongyang's Swedish embassy acts a proxy consular body to the United States because the latter has no diplomatic relations with North Korea. Cockerell added that the US government will formally announce the ban soon.

Young Pioneer Tours also provided a statement with similar information. However, they added that the ban also calls for invalidation of passport to any U.S. citizen who travels to the country after the 30-day grace period.

Travel Ban and Otto Warmbier's death

Young Pioneer Tours, one of the two companies that informed media about the ban, organized the group tour of #Otto Warmbier to Pyongyang.

Warmbier was sent back to the United States in a coma after being released from a North Korean prison in June 2017.

He died six days after his return to the U.S. This led to tension between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), especially when President Donald J. Trump slammed the brutality of the North Korean regime.

Prior to this, he had served 17 months of his sentence: 15 years imprisonment and hard labor.

This was for his alleged theft of a propaganda poster from a hotel in January 2016 during their Pyongyang tour.

Young Pioneer announced they will no longer allow U.S. nationals on their tours shortly after the University of Virginia student's death. The US State Department has already issued travel warnings to North Korea twice this year (February and May).

South Carolina Representatives Joe Wilson (R) and Adam Schiff (D) have proposed a bill to Congress in May to ban travel of U.S. citizens to the DPRK. The lawmakers said they proposed the bill because at least 17 Americans were detained in DPRK in the past 10 years.

In a statement, Wilson and Schiff stated that "with increased tensions in North Korea, the danger that Americans will be detained for political reasons is greater than ever."

The bill was fast-tracked after the release and subsequent death of Warmbier.