U.S. to prohibit Americans’ travel to North Korea

ASPEN, Colo. — The Trump administration said Friday that it would bar Americans from traveling to North Korea, a month after the death of Otto F. Warmbier, a 22year-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, the director of the CIA, strongly hinted that the United States was considering seeking a regime change in North Korea. Mr. 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.

Mr. Pompeo was pressed several times about what he meant by that phrase, and whether it was code for regime change. Mr. 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 Mr. Pompeo’s language was deliberately ambiguous, and that there were ways to “separate” Mr. Kim from his arsenal without overthrowing the government. Mr. Pompeo, when pressed on the point, noted that there were risks if Mr. Kim left office, because it was unclear who might succeed him.

But his statement did not exactly echo how Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has talked about the administration’s approach to North Korea. In April, Mr. Tillerson said: “Our goal is not regime change. Nor do we desire to threaten the North Korean people or destabilize the Asia Pacific region.”

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, granted at the State Department’s discretion, for Americans seeking to enter the country on aid missions or in other special circumstances.

The ban was expected to be announced formally next Thursday, a major holiday in North Korea, and go into effect 30 days later, to allow any Americans in the country to leave. Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement that once the ban is in effect, “U.S. passports will be invalid for travel to, through and in North Korea, and individuals will be required to obtain a passport with a special validation in order to travel to or within North Korea.”

How much a travel ban will hurt the North is unclear, since not many Americans travel there.