Senators ponder ban on travel to N. Korea
After Warmbier’s death, calls for restrictions increase
“We’re constantly having to get people out of the country. I think it’s something we should seriously look at.” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., on Americans traveling to North Korea
In the wake of Otto Warmbier’s death, the Trump administration and top lawmakers in Congress said Tuesday that they were considering dramatic new restrictions on Americans’ ability to travel to North Korea.
Republicans and Democrats alike said Tuesday that banning tourist visits to North Korea could be an effective response to Warmbier’s 17-month detention and death. It would deprive that repressive regime of desperately needed revenue, they argued, and prevent the North Korean government from using American citizens as leverage in its highstakes diplomatic standoff with the U.S.
“It’s time that we look at the whole policy of U.S. citizens” traveling to North Korea, said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“It puts us in a very precarious situation,” Corker said. “We’re constantly having to get people out of the country. I think it’s something we should seriously look at because it affects our national security (and) it certainly endangers their lives.”
Even before the world learned that Warmbier had fallen into a coma while imprisoned in North Korea, Reps. Adam Schiff, DCalif., and Joe Wilson, R- S.C., introduced legislation that would require Americans to get a license from the Treasury Department to travel to the repressive dictatorship — and no licenses could be issued for tourists.
In a statement on Tuesday, Schiff said tourism “helps to fund one of the most brutal and despotic regimes in the world.” He said banning American tourists from visiting North Korea would make international sanctions all the more effective. It also would deprive the North Koreans of their ability to use detained Americans as pawns.
“The barbaric treatment of Otto Warmbier by the North Korean regime amounts to the murder of a U.S. citizen,” Schiff said.
Wilson, in an op-ed published Tuesday, echoed that argument and said tourism dollars have become “an ever-growing and reliable source of income for the dictatorship.”
Heather Nauert, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said the Trump administration already was con- sidering a move to restrict travel to North Korea.
“We’re contemplating that right now,” she said, adding that Tillerson has the authority to ban tourist travel without congressional action. “He just has not come to a conclusion about how this would potentially work.”
Asked whether the Trump administration was considering taking Warmbier’s case to an international court to seek murder charges, Nauert said, “I’m not aware of that at this point.” Yet she noted that Warmbier just died on Monday, and the State Department is still considering how to respond.
Warmbier went to North Korea with a tour. He was charged with hostile acts against the government for allegedly trying to steal a political banner.
Warmbier was sentenced in a sham trial to 15 years of hard labor and imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months.
The 22-year-old was released last week after U.S. officials learned he had been in a coma for more than a year.
In response to Warmbier’s death, top lawmakers have accused the North Korean regime of murder. But the U.S. has limited options to retaliate against that country, which already is diplomatically isolated and heavily sanctioned.
With few points of leverage, the idea of a travel ban seemed to be gaining steam Tuesday, even as some lawmakers suggested they would not act quickly.
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations panel, said that committee would be holding a closed-door briefing this week on North Korea and Warmbier’s case was likely to be a focal point. Asked about a possible travel ban, Cardin said it should be on the table.
“I don’t think we can protect the safety of Americans in North Korea, so I understand why there would be restrictions,” he said.
Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said the State Department should first try ratcheting up its warnings to Americans about the dangers of traveling to North Korea. He said “any American that’s not nuts” wouldn’t want to go there after seeing what happened to Warmbier.
“Tell all Americans if they go there, their lives are in danger and if necessary (put) a ban on it,” McCain said.
The lawmakers’ response came as President Trump doubled down on his criticism of the North Korean regime and suggested that Warmbier’s fate may have been different if he had been returned earlier.
“It’s a total disgrace what happened to Otto,” Trump said. “It should never, ever be allowed to happen. And frankly, if he were brought home sooner, I think the results would have been a lot different.” Trump added that Warmbier “should have ( been) brought home that same day. … His family is incredible ... but he should have been brought home a long time ago.”
WASHINGTON