After student’s death, U.S. weighs travel ban to N. Korea
Three U.S. citizens are still being held in the furtive nation
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is considering banning travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea, officials said Tuesday, as outrage grew over the death of American student Otto Warmbier and President Donald Trump declared it a “total disgrace.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has the authority to cut off travel to North Korea, has been weighing such a move since late April, when American teacher Tony Kim was detained in Pyongyang, a senior State Department official said. No ban is imminent, but deliberations gained new urgency after Warmbier’s death, said the official.
Even as Warmbier’s family prepared to mourn him at a public funeral service Thursday in Ohio, the circumstances behind his death remained unclear. Warmbier, 22, was released last week by North Korea in a coma, but died days later, his family said. The former University of Virginia student had been visiting North Korea in a tour group when he was detained, sentenced to 15 years hard labor for subversion, and held for more than 17 months.
“It’s a total disgrace what happened to Otto. That should never ever be allowed to happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Suggesting former President Barack Obama bears some blame, Trump said “the result would have been a lot different” had Warmbier been brought home sooner. Obama’s office had no reaction, but his former aides have said he worked tirelessly to try to get Warmbier and other Americans released from North Korea.
From the White House to Capitol Hill, pressure mounted for a tough U.S. response, even as U.S. diplomats sought to protect other Americans from facing a similar fate. Three other U.S. citizens, including Kim, are still being held in North Korea.
Barring Americans from stepping foot in North Korea would mark the latest U.S. step to isolate the furtive, nucleararmed nation and protect U.S. citizens who may be allured by the prospect of traveling there. Nearly all Americans who have gone to North Korea have left without incident. But some have been seized and given draconian sentences for seemingly minor offenses. The U.S. government strongly warns Americans against traveling to North Korea, but doesn’t prohibit it, despite other sanctions targeting the country. It’s unclear exactly how many Americans go to North Korea every year. Those who typically do travel from China, where tour groups market trips to adventure-seekers.
The U.S. and North Korea have no diplomatic relations. The U.S. has been pressing Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons development, and urging China and other countries to starve the North of funding for the program. But on Tuesday, Trump suggested that strategy had failed.
“While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “At least I know China tried!”
The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday in a show of force against North Korea, South Korean officials said. The U.S. often sends powerful warplanes in times of heightened animosities with North Korea, and flew B-1B bombers several times this year as the North conducted a series of banned ballistic missile tests.
In Congress, Democrats and Republicans found rare bipartisan consensus in denouncing the North.
Short of a total ban, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., proposed that prospective American travelers complete a form declaring they won’t hold the U.S. government responsible for what happens.