After Warmbier's death, U.S. weighs ban to North Korea
Pressure mounts for tough U.S. response to latest incident.
The Trump WASHINGTON — administration is consider
ing 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 with the stroke of the pen, has been weighing such a move since late April, when American teacher Tony Kim was detained in Pyongyang, a senior State Department offi- cial said. No ban is imminent, but deliberations gained new urgency after Warmbier’s death, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal diplomatic discussions. From Capitol Hill to the W hite House, pressure mounted for a tough U.S. response, even as U.S. diplomats sought to protect others Americans from facing a similar fate. Three other U.S. citizens, including Kim, are still being held in North Korea.
“It’s a total disgrace what happen e d 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 reac
tion, but his former aides have said he worked tirelessly to try to get Warm- bier and other Americans released from North Korea.
Warmbier, 22, died Monday in his home state of Ohio, his family said, just days after being released in a coma by
North Korea. The former University of Virginia stu- dent had been visiting North Korea with a tour group when he was detained, sentenced to 15 years hard labor for subversion, and held for more than 17 months. The circumstances of his coma and death remain unclear.
Barring Americans from stepping foot in North Korea would mark the latest U.S. step to isolate the furtive, nuclear-armed 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.
T he 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.
Some of those companies — including China-based Young Pioneer Tours, which took Warmbier to Pyongyang — have now stopped taking
Americans. Other travel companies say they’re consid- ering a similar restriction.
The U.S. and North Korea have no diplomatic relations. The U.S. has been pressing Pyongyang to halt its nuclear weapons develop- ment 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!”
In Congress, Democrats and Republicans f ound rare bipartisan consensus in denouncing the North. Several senators said they were considering a travel ban. In the House, lawmak- ers lined up behind legisla
tion from Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, and Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican.
Under their proposal, the Treasury Department would be ordered to prohibit all financial transactions related to travel to North Korea by Americans, unless specif- ically authorized by a U.S.
license. No licenses would be issued for tourism.
But the Trump administration doesn’t need an act of Congress to bar Americans from traveling to North Korea. Under existing law, all it would take is a designation by Tillerson — called a “geographic travel restriction” — to make all American
passports invalid for travel to North Korea.
To back up the designation, Tillerson could assert that Americans face “immi- nent danger” to their health or safety if they travel there, an easily defendable asser-
tion in the wake of Warm- bier’s death. The U.S. doesn’t currently prohibit its passports from being used to travel to any country, even though finan- cial restrictions limit U.S. travel to Cuba and elsewhere. If a passport ban were placed on North Korea, an American who violated it could face a fine and up to 10 years in prison for a first offense. Schiff said a new law was important to show Congress’ unity on North Korea, arguing that financial measures through the Treasury Department might be more effective than a passport ban because it would deter travel com- panies ferrying Americans. “This has the merits of protecting Americans from going to a place of increasing danger, but also drying up one source of our currency for North Korea,” Schiff said in an interview. Short of a total ban, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., proposed that prospective Amer- ican travelers complete a form declaring they won’t hold the U.S. government responsible for what happens. He said the form would require Americans to affirm they’re aware of what has happened to other U.S. citizens, such as Warmbier, whom he said was “mur- dered” by the North.