U.S. hints at regime change in N. Korea, will ban traveling there

ASPEN, Colo. — The Trump administration said Friday that it will bar Americans from traveling to North Korea, a month after the death of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old college student from Ohio who was arrested while trying to leave the country and returned to his parents, more than a year later, in a coma.

The announcement came only hours after Mike Pompeo, director of the CIA, strongly hinted that the United States was considering seeking a regime change in North Korea. Pompeo told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday night that President Donald Trump had ordered him to come up with options that would “separate the capacity” to build and deliver nuclear weapons from “someone who might well have intent,” a clear reference to Kim Jong Un, the country’s leader.

Pompeo was pressed several times in an interview here Thursday evening conducted by Bret Stephens, a New York Times columnist, about what he meant by that phrase, and whether it was code for regime change. Pompeo would not utter that phrase, saying instead, “As for the regime, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate that regime from these” missiles and nuclear weapons.

CIA officials noted that Pompeo’s language was deliberately ambiguous, and there were ways to “separate” Kim from his arsenal without the overthrow of the regime. Pompeo noted that there were risks if Kim left office, because it is unclear who might succeed him.

While the State Department has long warned Americans about the risks of detention in the North — leading to high-drama cases in which the United States has sent former presidents, intelligence chiefs and special envoys to win the release of detainees — it has not previously banned all travel. The new rules will allow for a special certification for Americans seeking to enter the country on aid missions or in other special circumstances.

The ban is expected to be announced formally next Thursday, a major holiday in North Korea, and it will go into effect 30 days later, to allow any Americans in the country to leave.