north korea us travel advisory

Update April 12, 2024

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Travel Facts

Us state dept travel advisory.

The US Department of State currently recommends US citizens DO NOT TRAVEL to North Korea due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals. Exercise increased caution to North Korea due to the critical threat of wrongful detention. Consult its website via the link below for updates to travel advisories and statements on safety, security, local laws, and special circumstances in this country. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html

Passport/Visa Requirements

For the latest passport and visa requirements for this country, please consult the U.S. State Department’s “Learn About Your Destination” search tool, available through the link below. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages.html

US Embassy/Consulate

Embassy of Sweden Pyongyang, Munsu-Dong District, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, +46 8 405 10 00 (main switchboard), US citizens may call US Dept of State (202)-501-4444 for emergencies, https://www.swedenabroad.se/en/embassies/north-korea-pyongyang/

LGBTQIA+ Travelers

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) travelers can face unique challenges when traveling abroad. Laws and attitudes in some countries may affect safety and ease of travel. Legal protections vary from country to country. Many countries do not legally recognize same-sex marriage . Approximately seventy countries consider consensual same-sex sexual relations a crime , sometimes carrying severe punishment. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/travelers-with-special-considerations/lgbtqi.html

Telephone Code

Local emergency phone.

US citizens may call US Dept of State (202)-501-4444 for emergencies

Vaccinations

The CDC and WHO recommend the following vaccinations for North Korea: hepatitis A, hepatitis B, typhoid, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, meningitis, polio, measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis), chickenpox, shingles, pneumonia, COVID-19, and influenza. http://www.who.int/

Temperate, with rainfall concentrated in summer; long, bitter winters

Currency (Code)

North Korean won (KPW)

Electricity/Voltage/Plug Type(s)

Major Languages

Major religions.

Traditionally Buddhist and Confucianist, some Christian and syncretic Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way)

Time Difference

UTC+9 (14 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time); note: on 5 May 2018, North Korea reverted to UTC+9, the same time zone as South Korea

Potable Water

Opt for bottled water

International Driving Permit

Road driving side, tourist destinations.

Complex of Koguryo Tombs

Major Sports

Soccer, basketball

Cultural Practices

It's illegal to show disrespect or make jokes about North Korea, current or former leaders or their families. It's also illegal to talk to North Koreans without authorization. Authorities may consider it spying if you do. Only shop at stores designated for foreigners.

Tipping Guidelines

Tipping is not expected

Stamps and postcards, propaganda posters, obsolete currency, watch movements, panacea teas

Traditional Cuisine

Kimchi raengmyŏn — long, thin handmade noodles made from the flour and starch of various ingredients such as buckwheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, arrowroot starch, or kudzu, and beef or poultry broth; typically served cold

Please visit the following links to find further information about your desired destination. World Health Organization (WHO) - To learn what vaccines and health precautions to take while visiting your destination. US State Dept Travel Information - Overall information about foreign travel for US citizens. To obtain an international driving permit (IDP). Only two organizations in the US issue IDPs: American Automobile Association (AAA) and American Automobile Touring Alliance (AATA) How to get help in an emergency? Contact the nearest US embassy or consulate, or call one of these numbers: from the US or Canada - 1-888-407-4747 or from Overseas - +1 202-501-4444 Page last updated: Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Americans Can't Visit North Korea. Some Who Have Family There Hope Biden Changes That

Anthony Kuhn

North Korean Kang Ho-Rye (second from left), 89, hugs her South Korean relative at a resort at Mount Kumgang, North Korea, in August 2018. Almost 100 South Koreans crossed the armed border to the North to meet their separated families. The U.S. bars citizens from entering North Korea, but some Korean Americans hope the Biden administration will lift the ban and let them visit again. Lee Su-Kil/Pool/Getty Images hide caption

SEOUL — The Biden administration has to decide by the end of the month whether to renew a ban on U.S. citizens traveling to North Korea, and Americans with relatives in North Korea are eagerly awaiting the decision.

They include Kate Shim, who immigrated to the United States from South Korea in the 1970s. After the Korean War, her uncle was missing and her family believed he was in North Korea.

Shim says her great-grandmother told her father: "You need to find your brother because I know he's alive."

Shim's brother managed to track down their missing uncle in North Korea in the 1980s, finally reuniting him with his mother after more than 30 years.

In 1989, Shim started visiting relatives in North Korea, too.

"They were alive, and I was so happy to see my cousins," says Shim, 62. "We didn't care about, like, what politics, what kind of government we are under. We're just happy to see them."

In the 1940s and 50s, the division of Korea into two countries and the Korean War left as many as 10 million Koreans separated from their families. U.S. officials estimated in 2001 that the figure included 100,000 Korean Americans, but the number has dwindled as their communities age.

For many of the remaining members of that divided generation, time is running out to reunite with their relatives separated by geography and clashing governments.

Travel was banned after Otto Warmbier

In this Feb. 29, 2016, photo, American student Otto Warmbier cries while speaking in Pyongyang, North Korea. Warmbier died in June 2017 days after being released from detention in North Korea in a coma. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP hide caption

The U.S. has barred the use of an American passport to enter North Korea since 2017, making limited, one-time exceptions for some citizens such as aid workers and journalists.

101 Ways To Thwart A Reporter In Pyongyang

The Trump administration enacted the ban following the June 2017 death of American college student Otto Warmbier after his release from detention in Pyongyang.

The Two-Way

Otto warmbier's parents sue north korea, alleging torture of their son.

North Korean authorities arrested Warmbier in January 2016 and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for taking a propaganda poster in a hotel in Pyongyang. After being in custody for more than a year, the 22-year-old was flown home in a coma and died shortly after. North Korea has denied accusations of torture.

Last year, when Biden was a candidate, he said in an op-ed that as president he would work "to reunite Korean Americans separated from loved ones in North Korea for decades."

The administration has not commented on what it will do about the travel policy.

In a statement to NPR, the State Department said it renewed the restriction in September 2020 "due to continuing concerns over the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention in North Korea." The ban will expire on Sept. 1 unless the secretary of state extends or revokes it.

(The government's travel advisory also says not to visit North Korea now because of COVID-19 .)

Detention risk or dialogue opportunity

Some experts on North Korea believe the threat of detention remains, and so should the restriction.

North Korea Says Detained American Had Intended To 'Subvert The Country'

"At this moment, there's no reason to get rid of the travel ban," argues Anthony Ruggiero, a former National Security Council director for North Korea. He says Pyongyang has not abandoned its practice of detaining Americans as it hopes to secure political leverage over Washington.

Former President Bill Clinton claps as former Vice President Al Gore hugs Laura Ling and Euna Lee smiles with joy. Clinton and the two California journalists whose freedom he helped secure from prison in North Korea arrived at what's now called Hollywood Burbank Airport on Aug. 5, 2009. Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images hide caption

Some previous detentions have required former presidents, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton , to travel to North Korea to secure their release and bring them home.

The ban should only be lifted "when North Korea is more of a normal country, that doesn't kidnap people," says Ruggiero, now a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a research group in Washington that has advocated for a hard line against North Korea.

Ruggiero doesn't think allowing people-to-people exchanges will help persuade the government of Kim Jong Un to give up its nuclear weapons and missiles programs.

Other observers argue that reopening travel could be a start.

"The U.S. is saying we want the North Koreans to come to the table," notes Daniel Jasper, the Asia public education and advocacy coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee, a Philadelphia-based peace advocacy group. "In order to do that," he says, "we have to get back to baseline level of engagement, or North Koreans will continue to understand that to mean that the U.S. is not really sincere in their attempts to engage."

Jasper attended a meeting recently where several civic groups tried to persuade administration officials to lift the ban.

The White House has said it's taking a " calibrated practical approach " toward potential diplomacy with North Korea. This week, Biden's envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, said he discussed with South Korean officials possible ways to address humanitarian cooperation with North Korea.

Meanwhile, advocates and lawmakers have pushed for help reuniting divided Korean families. A bill is now before the Senate that would require U.S. officials to consult with Korean Americans on progress on these efforts.

North Koreans on a bus hold hands of their South Korean relatives to bid farewell after the separated family reunion meeting at the Mount Kumgang resort on Aug. 26, 2018, in Mount Kumgang, North Korea. Lee Su-Kil/Pool/Getty Images hide caption

Opening up helps to seek closure

Although official visitor figures for North Korea are hard to find, one tour operator estimated as many as 1,000 Americans went annually, according to news reports before the ban took effect.

One of the lucky ones who made it was Choon Lim. He was born in Nampo, North Korea, and fled to South Korea during the war. He later settled in Chicago.

In 1998, he visited North Korea hoping to find his father, but discovered he had died six years before.

When it came time for Lim to pour an offering of liquor before his father's ashes, he froze for an instant, that felt like an eternity.

"All those 47 years, what I have experienced, how I lived, how we lived in the South, all those things came down through my head. And I collapsed. I couldn't do it," remembers Lim, who is 75.

Lim later returned to North Korea several times with other Korean American families.

"I worked for helping separated family members visiting North Korea," he says, "because every one of the separated families should have the same kind of a closure that I had."

Waiting for a peaceful resolution

Ed Kang is also in favor of ending the travel ban. Born in 1934, he grew up in a Christian family in Pyongyang. He fled to avoid persecution under the communist regime, walking with his father the roughly 120 miles to Seoul in the winter of 1950.

"Many times, I was almost killed, but I survived," Kang recalls. "I saw the hand of God, protecting me and guiding me." Kang became a Presbyterian minister in the U.S., and returned to North Korea several times to visit his mother and younger brother, after being separated for more than 30 years.

He says the travel ban is causing unnecessary suffering, and removing it would be "making a contribution to a kind of peaceful resolution between the U.S. and North Korea."

Even if the ban is lifted, though, North Korea remains closed to the outside world, due to the pandemic. It has stopped answering hotline connecting it with South Korea, and says it is "not even considering " negotiations with the U.S.

Se Eun Gong contributed to this story from Seoul and Michele Kelemen from Washington, D.C.

North Korea diplomacy
otto warmbier
korean american
North Korea

Biden administration extends Trump-era ban on US passport use for North Korea travel

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has extended for one year a Trump-era ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea.

The ban had first been imposed by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 after the death of American student Otto Warmbier , who suffered grievous injuries while in North Korean custody. It has been extended annually ever since.

The State Department announced the extension of the ban until Aug. 31, 2022, in a Federal Register notice to be published on Thursday. Humanitarian groups have expressed concern about the impact the initial ban and its extensions have had on providing relief to isolated North Korea, which is one of the world’s neediest countries .

►State TV: North Koreans concerned over Kim Jong Un's 'emaciated looks'

►'Tense' food situation: Kim Jong Un warns of possible food shortages, extended COVID-19 restrictions

The ban makes it illegal to use a U.S. passport for travel to, from or through North Korea, also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or the DPRK, unless the document has been specially validated. Such validations are granted by the State Department only in the case of compelling national interest.

“The Department of State has determined there continues to be serious risk to U.S. citizens and nationals of arrest and long-term detention constituting imminent danger to their physical safety,” the department said in the notice. “Accordingly, all U.S. passports shall remain invalid for travel to, in, or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel under the authority of the secretary of state."

►No-show: Even in absence, North Korea's presence felt at Tokyo Games

Warmbier was part of a group tour of North Korea and was leaving the country in January 2016 when he was arrested for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. He was later convicted of subversion and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In June 2017, North Korean authorities reported to U.S. officials that Warmbier had suffered extensive injuries while in custody, and President Donald Trump's administration sent a delegation to repatriate him.

Comatose, Warmbier died in a Cincinnati hospital six days after his return to the U.S. Shortly thereafter, Tillerson imposed the ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea.

North Koreans In U.S. Await Biden Administration's Decision On Travel Ban

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Anthony Kuhn, NPR

The Biden administration must decide by month's end whether to keep or scrap a 2017 ban on travel to North Korea. The ban prevents Korean Americans who have families in the North from visiting them.

NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul, South Korea.

This segment aired on August 24, 2021.

More from Here & Now

US State Department renews travel ban to North Korea amid rising tensions

The ban makes it illegal to use a u.s. passport for travel to, from or through north korea, unless it has been specifically validated in the case of a compelling national interest, by matthew lee | associated press • published august 22, 2023.

The Biden administration is extending for another year a ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea, the State Department said Tuesday. The ban was imposed in 2017 and has been renewed every year since.

The latest extension comes as tensions with North Korea are rising over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and the uncertain status of Travis King, a U.S. service member who last month entered the country through its heavily armed border.

“The Department of State has determined there continues to be serious risk to U.S. citizens and nationals of arrest and long-term detention constituting imminent danger to their physical safety,” the department said in a notice to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday that was signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

North Korea confirms detention of US soldier and says he's seeking refuge ‘from mistreatment' in US Army

Missiles aren't the only threat from North Korea. Its conventional arms are just as deadly

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The ban makes it illegal to use a U.S. passport for travel to, from or through North Korea, unless it has been specifically validated in the case of a compelling national interest. It will remain in place until Aug. 31, 2024, unless it is extended or rescinded.

The ban was first imposed during the Trump administration by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 after the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who suffered grievous injuries while in North Korean custody.

Humanitarian groups have expressed concern about the impact the initial ban and its extensions have had on providing relief to isolated North Korea, which is one of the world’s neediest countries.

There is no indication that King used a U.S. passport to enter North Korea when he crossed the border in July. The U.S. is seeking his return but has had limited success in querying North Korean officials about his case.

Last week, North Korea offered its first official confirmation of King's presence in the country, releasing a statement on Aug. 16 through its state media attributing statements to the Army private that criticized the United States.

There was no immediate verification that King actually made any of the comments. He had served in South Korea and sprinted into North Korea while on a civilian tour of a border village on July 18, and became the first American confirmed to be detained in the North in nearly five years.

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The Peninsula

Lift or extend travel ban for u.s. citizens to north korea, published september 1, 2021, author: robert king, category: north korea.

In the summer of 2017 Rex Tillerson, during his tenure as Secretary of State for the first 13 months of the Trump administration, authorized a “ Geographical Travel Restriction ” prohibiting U.S. citizens from traveling “into, through or in North Korea.” The travel prohibition became effective on September 1, 2017, and it was valid for one year. That same travel ban was extended annually for the following three years by Mike Pompeo, who subsequently served as Trump’s Secretary of State (2018-2021). The last extension of the travel ban was for the one-year period from September 1, 2020, to September 1, 2021.*

A number of significant changes were made in U.S. foreign policy when President Joe Biden assumed office in January 2021. The United States announced it would resume participation in the UN Human Rights Council, and the U.S. would seek election to the Council. On the day he took the oath of office, Biden overturned the Trump policy known as the “Muslim ban,” which prohibited travel to the United States of individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries.

One of the policies of the previous administration that Biden did not reverse was the Trump ban on U.S. citizens traveling to North Korea. The ban was never a total prohibition on travel, but special exemption for travel to North Korea was allowed only under very limited circumstances —for journalists whose reporting is publicly available, U.S. citizens who work for or represent the Red Cross on a specific mission for the organization, individuals whose travel was “justified by compelling humanitarian considerations,” or travel that is “otherwise in the national interest.”

Receiving official U.S. government validation to travel to North Korea involved bureaucratic headaches as well as time and effort. It required purchasing another U.S. passport valid only for a single trip to the North, submitting a lengthy application justifying the travel to North Korea, and all this involved significant costs for humanitarian organizations.

Advocates for Lifting the North Korea Travel Ban

The current extension of the travel ban expires on September 1 unless it is explicitly extended by the Secretary of State. That deadline and a required decision from the Biden Administration has provoked a great deal of interest and discussion. In mid-August, a number of humanitarian and advocacy groups met with State Department officials to present a letter arguing that the ban should be lifted or allowed to expire. The groups behind these calls for ending the travel ban are a network of organizations and individuals called Let Individuals Freely Travel (LIFT), though its focus is not travel in general, but specifically to permit travel to North Korea.

Organizations involved in providing humanitarian assistance to North Korea have been particularly disadvantaged by the blanket travel ban since it was imposed in 2017. These include organizations which provide aid to North Korea—medical expertise, medications, and assistance; technological and business training; know-how and small scale aid with seeds or livestock semen to help increase agricultural output and food production; education assistance, particularly in the English language; and others kinds of technical aid. There has been no large-scale provision of food assistance for many years. Presence in the country and contact with North Koreans are essential components for success of these efforts. The North Korean government has been interested in working with many of these U.S.-based groups and some have relationships that extend back many years. The travel ban has been a particular obstacle for all of these private U.S. humanitarian efforts.

A second group of individuals and organizations that are calling for lifting the travel ban are Korean Americans who have family living in the North whom they have not seen for decades. They have not been able to travel freely to visit family members in the North, but they have been increasingly vocal in calling for organized family reunions. U.S. Congressional interest in divided North Korean family reunions has grown over the last few years. The House of Representatives adopted legislation introduced by Congresswoman Grace Meng (New York) in 2020 and 2021 , and this Congressional interest reflects the Korean America community’s heightened interest in the issue.

Family reunions between Korean Americans and North Korean relatives are particularly difficult because of the effort by Pyongyang to use humanitarian issues for political leverage. North Korean citizens are not permitted to leave the country to meet with relatives in South Korea or anywhere else. Any reunions allowed must be held in the North, though the number permitted has been very small and infrequent. Thus far, the few reunions have only involved relatives of North Koreans living in South Korea.

There is serious concern in Pyongyang about such family contacts undermining North Korean efforts to maintain control of its population. The bottom line is that the travel ban imposed by the United States since 2017 is not the reason such family reunions do not take place. The far greater obstacle is that the North does not want such contact between its own citizens and their family members living in the United States.

Reasons the Trump Administration Banned Travel to North Korea

In March 2016 , almost a year before the United States issued its ban on travel by U.S. Citizens to North Korea, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution imposing economic and other sanctions against North Korea in response to the North’s fourth nuclear weapon test and a submarine-launched missile test. Eight months later , additional sanctions were imposed by the UN Security Council following the North’s fifth nuclear test.

Some analysts considered the travel ban as part of the sanctions effort to put economic pressure on the North because of its nuclear and missile testing. Tourism was a growing source of revenue for Pyongyang , estimated in 2015 to be between $30.6 million to $43.6 million annually, with an estimated 95,000 Chinese and 5,000 visitors from other countries. North Korean officials made it clear that expanding tourism was an economic priority.

Although reducing travel to North Korea was consistent with the economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations and other unilateral United States sanctions, the principal reason for the travel curb was the detention of U.S. citizens by the North for what were considered minor issues in order to create difficulties for Washington. The case that galvanized U.S. anger was the imprisonment of U.S. citizen Otto Warmbier , who died shortly after he was returned to the United States in a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” following 17 months of detention in North Korea. He had joined a package tour to North Korea around New Year’s Day 2016, but he was prevented from leaving the country, tried in a widely televised court proceeding a few months later, and sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence that was completely disproportionate to his supposed “crime.”

It was clear that the detention of U.S. citizens traveling in North Korea and, in particular, the death of Otto Warmbier, was the principal reason for the travel ban. The North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016 —which was adopted by the U.S. Congress, after the 2016 nuclear and missile tests and following Warmbier’s detention—required the State Department to issue frequently updated travel warnings regarding travel to North Korea, including explicit details of “North Korea’s detention of U.S. citizens,” “information on North Korea’s past and present detention and abduction of citizens of the United States, South Korea, or Japan,” and “information about the nature of the North Korean regime.” At the time the legislation was adopted, Otto Warmbier was still detained against his will in North Korea, but it was before his return to the United States and his untimely death.

Secretary of State Tillerson issued the travel ban in July 2017 a few months after the Trump Administration assumed office. Otto Warmbier died on June 19, 2017, a few days after his highly publicized return to the United States. The travel ban was announced just a few days later in early July 2017 with an effective date of September 1, 2017. Clearly the safety of U.S. citizens and their detention without appropriate legal and humanitarian standards was the principal factor behind that decision.

Balancing Benefits of Humanitarian and Educational Assistance with U.S. Citizens Being Held Hostage

Humanitarian and educational assistance provided by private U.S. organizations to North Korea is unquestionably beneficial the country. These private groups have consistently been able to help alleviate humanitarian needs. But there is also a political benefit to the United States in reducing the hostile attitudes toward the U.S. because of caring Americans providing aid and training to North Koreans in areas of medical care, food, nutrition, and education.

Permitting U.S. citizens to travel to North Korea for humanitarian and educational activities has not necessarily led to increased detention or harm to U.S. citizens in the North. Most of the U.S. detainees have been tourists. U.S. detainees generally have not been involved with long-established humanitarian and educational organizations undertaking assistance projects in the North. Lifting the travel ban for U.S. citizens who are working with these established groups would allow the benefits of their humanitarian efforts, but is unlikely to lead to U.S. citizens being detained. Continuing the prohibition for adventure tourism to North Korea by U.S. Citizens would not have significant negative consequences. Some runners will be unhappy not to have the souvenir T-shirt with the inscription “I Ran in the Pyongyang Marathon,” but no U.S. runners will be hand-harvesting potatoes in the outskirts of Pyongyang for a couple of years.

The Difficulty of Family Reunions for Korean Americans

The growing interest of Korean Americans in meeting with family members from North Korea is unfortunately not easily resolved. The Kim regime has no interest in welcoming Korean Americans to the North, and in fact probably sees serious risks in raising discontent when North Korean relatives meet their American cousins. It only highlights the gap between the wealth of the capitalist migrants to America and the harsh living conditions of those living in the workers’ paradise that is North Korea.

Family reunions have been important for South Korean governments. The government of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) and his successor Roh Moo-hyun (2003-2008) and President Moon Jae-in (2017-) were able to work out in-person meetings (all in North Korea), and these contacts involved over twenty thousand individuals having contact with relatives in North Korea. A smaller number of individuals who were permitted to exchange letters with relatives on a single occasion. No such meetings or contacts took place during the conservative presidencies of Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013) and Park Gyun-hye (2013-2017), which is a clear indication that for North Korea these meetings are political not humanitarian. Korean Americans were not able to participate in these family reunion activities.

Unfortunately, the aging of the population with family members in North Korea, means that there is an urgency in trying to arrange family meetings. But there has been little success in dealing with the North on these issues. Lifting the travel ban will have little impact. The problem is the unwillingness of Pyongyang to permit its people to have contact with their relatives still living in the North, and the desire to use this and other contacts for political leverage with the United States.

The Menace of COVID-19 Means Little Will Change Regardless of What Happens with the U.S. Travel Ban

North Korea has been called the “hermit nation” because of its self-imposed isolation, but the isolation that has been imposed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is even worse. In late January 2020 the country closed its borders, and it has taken draconian steps to prevent contagion because of its weak medical system. A large portion of foreign diplomats have left the North, and departing diplomats are frequently not replaced at this time. A “collective exit” of diplomats has been reported. A strict quarantine was imposed upon the city of Kaesong and the surrounding area when a re-defector surreptitiously crossed the border from South Korea in order to return to Kaesong. Eight Russian diplomats in Pyongyang who were returning to Russia, were forced to walk across the railroad bridge over the Tumen River with their baggage to cross into Russia.

The number of North Korean refugees reaching South Korea in 2020 dropped sharply, reaching the smallest number since defectors began fleeing to the South in the late 1990s, and border security has been enhanced with even tougher instructions for guards to shoot to kill. North Koreans have reportedly been shot for simply entering the buffer zone near the border. Shortly after tighter border controls were imposed, a South Korean official was shot and his body burned after his boat entered North Korean territorial waters.

North Korean policies on the COVID-19 pandemic make it quite clear that the North is unlikely to allow U.S. citizens, or visitors of any other nationality, to enter the North as long as the pandemic continues to rage. Action by the United States to ease the travel ban is not likely to have any impact on allowing U.S. citizens to visit North Korea for humanitarian and educational purposes or to reunite with family members in the North. Any change will have to await significant easing of the pandemic.

*After this post was published the U.S. State Department announced that it had extended the travel ban to North Korea.

Robert R. King is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Korea Economic Institute of America. He is former U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Human Rights (2009-2017). The views expressed here are his own.

Photo from Uri Tours’ photostream on flickr Creative Commons.

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US extends ban on citizens’ travel to North Korea for seventh year

The U.S. has extended a ban on American citizens entering North Korea for a seventh consecutive year, the State Department announced Tuesday.

The ban prevents U.S. passport holders from traveling “to, in, or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel.” The one-year renewal will go into effect on Sept. 1.

“The Department of State has determined there continues to be serious risk to U.S. citizens and nationals of arrest and long-term detention constituting imminent danger to their physical safety,” according to a notice posted on the Federal Register and signed by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Washington introduced the ban on the use of U.S. passports to travel to the DPRK in 2017, partially in response to the death of Otto Warmbier . North Korea imprisoned the American citizen while he was visiting the country as a tourist, and he fell into a coma and died soon after his return to the U.S.

But while the U.S. maintains that the travel restrictions are necessary to safeguard American’s safety, activists, humanitarian workers and tour companies have expressed concern about how the ban affects their work and the cumbersome process to receive humanitarian exemptions.

Cathi Choi, director of policy and organizing for Women Cross DMZ and co-coordinator of Korea Peace Now ! , expressed disappointment at the extension of the ban.

“The decision to extend this draconian ban ignores the repeated urging from a broad coalition of advocates and experts to modify the travel ban to at least allow for important people-to-people initiatives and family reunions ,” she told NK News .

Tourism industry insiders also voiced regret about the State Department’s announcement.

“It’s unfortunately become the status quo, and short of a major shift in the DPRK-U.S. diplomatic landscape, it’s difficult to imagine a circumstance where the U.S. would see reason to lift the ban,” Elliott Davies, director of travel company Uri Tours, told NK News .

The State Department has discretionary authority to allow exceptions to the travel ban, but Davies said he’s never heard of a case where a special validation request was approved for tourism.

Choi also bemoaned the State Department’s “unfettered discretion in this approval process,” adding that the U.S. only grants such requests in “exceedingly rare circumstances.”

The U.S. has specified in the past that only journalists, Red Cross representatives and those carrying out humanitarian or other work “in the national interest” were eligible to apply for an exemption .

However, a new FAQ section on the State Department website now specifies that it will now consider special validations for Americans with relatives in the DPRK.

The FAQ also specifies that the U.S. has increased the period for multiple entry exemptions from one year to two, which appears to come in response to complaints about the application process.

Rowan Beard of Young Pioneer Tours, the company that led Warmbier’s tour to the DPRK, told NK News that there is “huge demand” among American tourists to visit North Korea and that the ban had a significant impact on the company’s business at the time.

But he said that doesn’t mean he thinks now is the time to lift the ban.

“For America to switch to allow American tourists to visit the DPRK with the current state between the two nations would be irresponsible,” Rowan said.

In 2019, the U.S. also began enforcing a rule that eliminated visa-free entry to eligible nationals if they visited North Korea after 2011, possibly deterring travel to the DPRK by non-U.S. citizens.

Irrespective of the U.S. travel ban, North Korea has restricted nearly all travel into the country since the start of the pandemic in an attempt to keep out COVID-19. The extreme border controls have kept out even DPRK citizens, though recently the country appears to be moving to allow North Koreans abroad to return home .

Edited by Alannah Hill

Updated at 1 p.m. KST on Aug. 25 with additional details from State Department FAQ page.

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The ups and downs of negotiating with North Koreans – Ep. 338

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Passports, travel and living abroad
Travel abroad
Foreign travel advice

North Korea

Safety and security.

There is a high threat of terrorist attack globally affecting UK interests and British nationals, including from groups and individuals who view the UK and British nationals as targets. You should remain vigilant at all times.

UK Counter Terrorism Policing has information and advice on staying safe abroad and what to do in the event of a terrorist attack. Find out how to reduce your risk from terrorism while abroad .

Terrorism in North Korea

Although there’s no recent history of terrorism in North Korea, attacks cannot be ruled out.

Political situation

The level of tension on the Korean peninsula has remained high since 2017 when North Korea began a series of nuclear and missile tests. A halt in nuclear testing and ballistic missile tests, announced in April 2018, came to an end in May 2019, when the North and South Korean governments temporarily restored direct contact. North Korea and the United States also restored contact at this time.

North Korea resumed missile tests in 2019, after the breakdown of the Hanoi Summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un. North Korea has tested ballistic missiles frequently since 2019.

In the past, similar periods of diplomatic engagement have not lasted. This has led to further missile or nuclear tests and a return to instability in the region. Tensions usually rise around the time of South Korean-US military exercises, often held in the spring and autumn.

Crime against foreigners in North Korea is rare. Take sensible precautions to protect your belongings.

Fire safety

Levels of fire safety awareness may be low. You may wish to check hotel fire procedures or consult your tour operator.

Laws and cultural differences

Insults or jokes about the North Korean political system and its leadership are severely frowned upon. Foreigners have sometimes found themselves in trouble for not paying what was deemed to be a sufficient level of respect, including not treating images of the leader with care.

In recent years, the North Korean authorities have arrested some visitors on various or unspecified grounds, including 4 US citizens and 1 Canadian. Some have faced public trials.

In 2016 a US national was sentenced to 15 years hard labour after a conviction for crimes against the state. He was found to have attempted to steal a political banner from the staff quarters of a tourist hotel. When he was released in 2017, he was in a coma and died soon after his return to the US.

Public offences

Offences that would be considered trivial in other countries can incur very severe penalties in North Korea, particularly actions the authorities deem to be disrespectful towards the North Korean leadership or government.

Using cameras and binoculars

Ask permission before taking photographs. Avoid taking photographs of North Korean officials or guarded buildings.

LGBT+ travellers

Although there’s no specific legislation outlawing same sex relationships in North Korea, these are considered unacceptable by the authorities.

Travel outside Pyongyang

Foreigners living in Pyongyang are usually able to travel within the city, but will often require permission for travel outside Pyongyang.

Travel for visitors within North Korea is severely restricted. Whether you are visiting on business or as a tourist, a guide will almost always accompany you. The guide will decide where you can go. It is your guide’s responsibility to get permission to travel outside Pyongyang. Military checkpoints at the entry and exit to all towns usually include ID checks.

In 2008 guards shot and killed a South Korean tourist who strayed into a restricted military area. Remain in permitted areas and move away immediately if asked to do so by North Korean officials.

Transport risks

Road travel.

You can get taxis from hotels or outside department stores, but they will be reluctant to take you without a local guide or interpreter. Foreigners are not generally allowed on public transport.

International driving permits are not valid in North Korea. Foreigners living in North Korea must get a local driving licence by passing a local driving test. You should take extra care when driving, as roads are often of poor quality with frequent hazards, and pedestrian road safety awareness is low.

See more information on driving abroad .

Most travellers enter North Korea on direct flights from Beijing to Pyongyang operated by the North Korean national airline Air Koryo or Air China.

The UK Air Safety List (ASL) has banned Air Koryo from operating commercial air services to the UK, with the exception of 2 Tupolev Tu204 aircraft. The Department for Transport maintains the list, based on advice from the UK Civil Aviation Authority .

Incidents reported in July 2016 and May 2017 involving Air Koryo flights highlight the lack of official information about Air Koryo’s safety record and standards.

Extreme weather and natural disasters

Flooding is common in the rainy season (July to August). This can disrupt travel especially to rural areas. Check that routes are passable before setting out on long journeys.

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Americans Can't Visit North Korea. Some Who Have Family There Hope Biden Changes That

North Korean Kang Ho-Rye (second from left), 89, hugs her South Korean relative at a resort at Mount Kumgang, North Korea, in August 2018. Almost 100 South Koreans crossed the armed border to the North to meet their separated families. The U.S. bars citizens from entering North Korea, but some Korean Americans hope the Biden administration will lift the ban and let them visit again.

Updated August 27, 2021 at 1:04 PM ET

They include Kate Shim, who immigrated to the United States from South Korea in the 1970s. After the Korean War, her uncle was missing and her family believed he was in North Korea.

Shim says her great-grandmother told her father: "You need to find your brother because I know he's alive."

Shim's brother managed to track down their missing uncle in North Korea in the 1980s, finally reuniting him with his mother after more than 30 years.

In 1989, Shim started visiting relatives in North Korea, too.

"They were alive, and I was so happy to see my cousins," says Shim, 62. "We didn't care about, like, what politics, what kind of government we are under. We're just happy to see them."

For many of the remaining members of that divided generation, time is running out to reunite with their relatives separated by geography and clashing governments.

Travel was banned after Otto Warmbier

In this Feb. 29, 2016, photo, American student Otto Warmbier cries while speaking in Pyongyang, North Korea. Warmbier died in June 2017 days after being released from detention in North Korea in a coma.

The U.S. has barred the use of an American passport to enter North Korea since 2017, making limited, one-time exceptions for some citizens such as aid workers and journalists.

The Trump administration enacted the ban following the June 2017 death of American college student Otto Warmbier after his release from detention in Pyongyang.

Last year, when Biden was a candidate, he said in an op-ed that as president he would work "to reunite Korean Americans separated from loved ones in North Korea for decades."

The administration has not commented on what it will do about the travel policy.

(The government's travel advisory also says not to visit North Korea now because of COVID-19 .)

Detention risk or dialogue opportunity

Some experts on North Korea believe the threat of detention remains, and so should the restriction.

Former President Bill Clinton claps as former Vice President Al Gore hugs Laura Ling and Euna Lee smiles with joy. Clinton and the two California journalists whose freedom he helped secure from prison in North Korea arrived at what's now called Hollywood Burbank Airport on Aug. 5, 2009.

Some previous detentions have required former presidents, including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton , to travel to North Korea to secure their release and bring them home.

Ruggiero doesn't think allowing people-to-people exchanges will help persuade the government of Kim Jong Un to give up its nuclear weapons and missiles programs.

Other observers argue that reopening travel could be a start.

Jasper attended a meeting recently where several civic groups tried to persuade administration officials to lift the ban.

North Koreans on a bus hold hands of their South Korean relatives to bid farewell after the separated family reunion meeting at the Mount Kumgang resort on Aug. 26, 2018, in Mount Kumgang, North Korea.

Opening up helps to seek closure

Although official visitor figures for North Korea are hard to find, one tour operator estimated as many as 1,000 Americans went annually, according to news reports before the ban took effect.

One of the lucky ones who made it was Choon Lim. He was born in Nampo, North Korea, and fled to South Korea during the war. He later settled in Chicago.

In 1998, he visited North Korea hoping to find his father, but discovered he had died six years before.

When it came time for Lim to pour an offering of liquor before his father's ashes, he froze for an instant, that felt like an eternity.

"All those 47 years, what I have experienced, how I lived, how we lived in the South, all those things came down through my head. And I collapsed. I couldn't do it," remembers Lim, who is 75.

Lim later returned to North Korea several times with other Korean American families.

"I worked for helping separated family members visiting North Korea," he says, "because every one of the separated families should have the same kind of a closure that I had."

Waiting for a peaceful resolution

He says the travel ban is causing unnecessary suffering, and removing it would be "making a contribution to a kind of peaceful resolution between the U.S. and North Korea."

Se Eun Gong contributed to this story from Seoul and Michele Kelemen from Washington, D.C.

Places the U.S. Government Warns Not to Travel Right Now

You may want to reconsider traveling to these countries right now.

Do Not Travel to These Countries

Man walking through an airport with his suitcase

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Crime, civil unrest and terrorism are common risk factors for countries that end up on the State Department's "Do Not Travel" advisory list.

In 2024, tourism across the globe is “well on track” to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to projections by UN Tourism.

Global conflicts and natural disasters , ranging from a series of coups across Africa to catastrophic earthquakes in the Middle East affected international travel patterns throughout 2023. Still, international tourist arrivals reached 87% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, according to estimates by UN Tourism .

In January 2024 alone, about 4.6 million U.S. citizens left the country for international destinations, 17% higher than the same month in 2019, according to the International Trade Administration . But some destinations warrant more caution than others.

On Oct. 19, 2023, following the outbreak of war between Israel and Gaza and flaring tensions in the region, the U.S. State Department issued a worldwide caution advisory due to “increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests.” Prior to this update, the most recent worldwide caution advisory was issued in 2022 after a U.S. strike killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor as leader of Al Qaeda, causing “a higher potential for anti-American violence.” The worldwide caution advisory remains in effect.

The U.S. State Department also issues individual travel advisory levels for more than 200 countries globally, continually updating them based on a variety of risk indicators such as health, terrorism and civil unrest. Travel advisory levels range from Level 1, which means exercise normal precautions, to Level 4, which means do not travel there.

About 10% of countries – 19 total – have a Level 4: “Do Not Travel” advisory as of Mar. 4. In Level 4 countries, the U.S. government may have “very limited ability” to step in should travelers’ safety or security be at risk, according to the State Department. Crime, civil unrest, kidnapping and terrorism are common risk factors associated with Level 4 countries.

So far in 2024, the State Department made changes to the existing Level 4 advisories for Myanmar, Iran and Gaza, and moved Niger and Lebanon off of the Level 4 list.

Places With a Level 4 Travel Advisory

These are the primary areas the U.S. government says not to travel to right now, in alphabetical order:

Jump to Place: Afghanistan Belarus Burkina Faso Central African Republic Myanmar (formerly Burma) Gaza Haiti Iran Iraq Libya Mali Mexico North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) Russia Somalia South Sudan Sudan Syria Ukraine Venezuela Yemen

Afghanistan: The Central Asian country is wrestling with “terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping and crime,” according to the State Department. U.S. citizens are specifically at risk for wrongful detention and kidnapping. In 2022, the government reinstituted public floggings and executions, and women’s rights are disappearing under Taliban control. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul halted operations in August 2021. Since the Taliban took control , many forms of international aid have been halted . Meanwhile, in 2023, some of the year’s deadliest earthquakes killed more than 2,400 in Afghanistan while the country continues to face a years-long extreme drought.

Belarus: Belarus, which shares a western border with Russia and a southern border with Ukraine, has been flagged for “Belarusian authorities’ continued facilitation of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the buildup of Russian military forces in Belarus, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, the potential of civil unrest, the risk of detention, and the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens residing in or traveling to Belarus.” The U.S. Embassy in Minsk halted operations in February 2022.

Burkina Faso: Terrorism, crime and kidnapping are plaguing this West African nation. Terrorist attacks may target hotels, restaurants and schools with little to no warning, and the East and Sahel regions of the country are under a state of emergency. In late November 2023, hundreds died in clashes between state security forces and rebels near the country’s border with Mali. In June, more than 2 million people in Burkina Faso were displaced due to “violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.”

Central African Republic: While there have not been specific incidents of U.S. citizens targeted with violence or crime, violent crime and sudden closure of roads and borders is common. The advisory states that “Embassy Bangui’s limited capacity to provide support to U.S. citizens, crime, civil unrest, and kidnapping” is a factor in its assessment. Recent data from UNICEF suggests the country has the worst drinking water accessibility of all countries in 2022.

Myanmar (Formerly Burma): Armed conflict and civil unrest are the primary reasons to not travel to this Southeast Asian country, which experienced a military coup in early 2021. Limited health care resources, wrongful detentions and “areas with land mines and unexploded ordnance” are also listed as risk factors. After Ukraine and Israel, Myanmar had the highest conflict-related death toll in 2023.

Gaza : Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization as designated by the State Department, controls much of the Gaza Strip, which shares borders with both Israel and Egypt. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas fighters broke across the border into Israel, killing hundreds of civilians and soldiers in a brazen attack that stunned Israelis. On Oct. 10, Israel hit the Gaza Strip with “the fiercest air strikes in its 75-year conflict” according to Reuters . The conflict has since escalated into war between Israel and Hamas, with regular Israeli airstrikes leading to extensive civilian casualties in Gaza. As of mid-December, nearly 85% of Gaza’s population were displaced from their homes, according to UN estimates . The region continues to face shortages of food , water, electricity and medical supplies , with conditions deemed “far beyond a humanitarian crisis.” The State Department warns of terrorism and armed conflict within Gaza’s borders.

Haiti: In July 2023, the Department of State ordered all non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members to leave the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince in response to the increased risk of kidnapping and violent crime in the country , as well as armed conflict between gangs and police. The travel advisory states that cases of kidnapping “often involve ransom negotiations and U.S. citizen victims have been physically harmed during kidnappings.” The travel advisory also states that “U.S. citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible” given “the current security situation and infrastructure challenges.” A series of gang attacks in late September 2023 caused thousands to flee their homes, and many aid groups have been forced to cut or suspend operations amid escalating violence in recent months.

Iran: Terrorism, kidnapping and civil unrest are risk factors for all travelers to Iran, while U.S. citizens are specifically at risk for “arbitrary arrest.” U.S.-Iranian nationals such as students, journalists and business travelers have been arrested on charges of espionage and threatening national security. Executions in Iran rose sharply between 2021 and 2022, bringing the country’s total to nearly 580 people over the year, according to a report by Amnesty International released in May 2023.

Iraq: The State Department cites “terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict [and] civil unrest” as cause for the country’s Level 4 distinction. Iraq’s northern borders, and its border with Syria, are especially dangerous. Since the escalation of conflict in neighboring Israel in October, there has been an increase in attacks against Iraqi military bases, which host U.S. troops and other international forces. In October 2023, non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members were ordered to leave the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

Libya: Following the end of its dictatorship over a decade ago, Libya has been wrought with internal conflict between armed groups in the East and West. Armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, kidnapping and terrorism are all risk factors. U.S. citizens have been targets of kidnapping for ransom, with terrorists targeting hotels and airports frequented by Westerners. The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli halted operations in 2014. In mid-September 2023, floods, which some say were intensified by climate change , killed thousands in eastern Libya. Clashes between armed factions escalated across the country in the latter half of 2023, including in the capital city of Tripoli and in Benghazi.

Mali: After experiencing military coups in 2020 and 2021, crime, terrorism and kidnapping are all prevalent threats in this West African landlocked nation. In July 2022, non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families were ordered to leave the country due to higher risk of terrorist activity. A U.N. report in August 2023 said that military groups in the country, including both Mali security forces and possibly Russian Wagner mercenaries, were spreading terror through the use of violence against women and human rights abuses. Democratic elections were supposed to occur in February 2024, but Mali’s military junta postponed the plans indefinitely. In December, the U.N. officially ended a decade-long peacekeeping presence in the country, which had been among the agency’s deadliest missions, with hundreds of the mission personnel killed since 2013.

Mexico: Each state in Mexico is assessed separately for travel advisory levels. Six of the 32 states in Mexico are designated as Level 4: Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. Crime and kidnapping are listed as the primary risk factors throughout the country. Nearly 112,000 people were missing across the country as of October, a number the U.N. has called “alarming.”

North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea): U.S. passports are not valid for travel “to, in, or through” this country, home to one of the world's longest-running dynastic dictatorships. The travel advisory states that the Level 4 distinction is due to “the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals.” In July 2023, a U.S. soldier fled across the border into North Korea, where he is believed to be in North Korean custody, the first American detained in the North in nearly five years. He was returned to U.S. custody in September 2023.

Russia: The travel advisory for Russia cites its invasion of Ukraine , harassment of U.S. citizens by Russian government officials and arbitrary law enforcement as a few of the reasons for the Level 4 designation. Chechnya and Mount Elbrus are specifically listed as Level 4 regions. Terrorism, civil unrest, health, kidnapping and wrongful detention are all noted as risks.

Russia Invades Ukraine: A Timeline

TOPSHOT - Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on February 24, 2022. - Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine today with explosions heard soon after across the country and its foreign minister warning a "full-scale invasion" was underway. (Photo by Aris Messinis / AFP) (Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Somalia: A severe drought resulting from five failed rainy seasons in a row killed 43,000 people in 2022, and caused a famine amid conflict with Islamist insurgents . Violent crime is common throughout Somalia , pirates frequent its coast off the Horn of Africa, and medical facilities, where they exist, have limited capacity. Crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health and kidnapping are all risk factors. In January 2024, some passengers aboard a U.N.-contracted helicopter were taken hostage by al-Shabaab militants after the vehicle crashed in central Somalia.

South Sudan: Crime, kidnapping and armed conflict are the primary risk factors for South Sudan, which separated from Sudan in 2011, making it the world’s newest country . Weapons are readily available, and travelers have been victims of sexual assault and armed robbery.

Sudan: The U.S. evacuated its embassy in Khartoum in April 2023, and the country closed its airspace due to the ongoing conflict in the country, only permitting humanitarian aid and evacuation efforts. Fighting has escalated in the region between two warring generals seeking to gain control after a military coup in 2021 ousted the country’s prime minister. Civil unrest is the primary risk factor for Africa’s third largest country by area. Crime, terrorism, kidnapping and armed conflict are also noted. The International Criminal Court began investigating alleged war crimes and violence against African ethnic groups in the country in 2023. Millions have fled their homes due to conflict, and the U.N. has said its efforts to provide aid have been hindered by a lack of support, safety and resources. As recently as December 2023, the United Nations warned of catastrophic famine , with millions of children at-risk for malnutrition .

Syria: The advisory states that “No part of Syria is safe from violence,” with terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, armed conflict and risk of unjust detention all potential risk factors. U.S. citizens are often a target for kidnappings and detention. The U.S. Embassy in Damascus halted operations in 2012. Fighting in neighboring Israel has escalated since October, and the conflict has spilled over into Syria, where the U.S. has carried out air strikes following drone and rocket attacks against American troops in Syria and Iraq, triggered by the Israel-Hamas war.

Ukraine: Russian setbacks in their invasion of Ukraine buoyed hopes in Ukraine in 2023. However, Ukraine is a Level 4 country due to Russia’s invasion, with crime and civil unrest also noted as risk factors. The country’s forces shot down two Russian fighter jets on Christmas Eve 2023, in a move Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “sets the right mood for the entire year ahead.”

Venezuela: Human rights abuses and lack of health care plague this South American nation, which has been in a political crisis since 2014. In 2019, diplomatic personnel were withdrawn from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. Threats in the country include crime, civil unrest, kidnapping, wrongful detention and poor health infrastructure.

Yemen: Six of the nine risk factors defined by the State Department – terrorism, civil unrest, health risks, kidnapping, armed conflict and landmines – are all present in Yemen. Despite private companies offering tourist visits to the Yemeni island of Socotra, the U.S. government argues those arranging such visits “are putting tourists in danger.” Civil war and cholera are also both present throughout the country. The U.S. Embassy in Sanaa halted operations in 2015. The country has experienced a relative lull in the civil war fighting, but as peace negotiations have gotten traction, flare ups in the fighting have jeopardized progress. Most recently, the U.S. and U.K. have carried out a series of airstrikes in the country, targeting Iran-backed Houthi sites.

Other Countries to Watch

Since Jan. 1, the State Department has updated travel advisories for 17 different countries as well as for the West Bank and Gaza, adding information about specific regions or risk factors, or simply renewing an existing advisory. Travel advisory levels can change based on several factors in a nation, such as increased civil unrest, policies that affect human rights or higher risks of unlawful detention.

The State Department has given about 25 countries an assessment of Level 3, meaning it recommends people “reconsider travel” to those destinations.

On Oct. 14, one week after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel, Israel and the West Bank were both moved from Level 2 to Level 3, while Gaza remains at Level 4. The region’s travel advisory was updated in November to reflect travel restrictions for certain government employees who have not already left the area, and it was updated again on Jan. 3.

Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in early October, the U.S. State Department raised Lebanon ’s travel advisory level from a Level 3 to a Level 4 level due to “the unpredictable security situation related to rocket, missile, and artillery exchanges” between Israel and Hezbollah or other militant groups. In December, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut returned to normal staffing and presence, and on Jan. 29, the country was moved back to Level 3. Crime, terrorism, armed conflict, civil unrest, kidnapping and unexploded landmines are listed as the country’s primary risk factors. However, the country’s borders with Syria and with Israel, as well as refugee settlements within Lebanon, are specifically noted as Level 4 regions.

China became a Level 3 country in late 2020, with an update in December 2022 citing “the surge in COVID-19 cases, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, and COVID-19-related restrictions” as the reason for the advisory. In June 2023, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) was moved from the Level 3 to the Level 2 list, but travelers are still advised to be cautious in the area due to “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” Meanwhile, Macau remains at Level 3.

Following an attempted coup in August 2023, Niger was elevated to Level 4 in August and the Department of State ordered all non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members to leave the U.S. Embassy in Niamey. In early January 2024, the overall risk level for the country was lowered back to Level 3. Despite the new classification, the State Department still asks non-emergency government personnel and eligible family members to depart the country.

In mid-December 2023 there was an explosion at Guinea’s main fuel depot which has since affected access to health care and basic goods and services. The country was subsequently designated a Level 3 nation after having previously been Level 2. Concerns about civil unrest, health, crime and fuel shortages impacting local infrastructure were listed as the primary risk factors contributing to the change.

Several Level 3 countries are among the worst countries for human trafficking, as designated by the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report . Level 3 countries on this list include Papua New Guinea, Guinea Bissau, China and Chad. There are also nine Level 4 countries designated as among the worst for human trafficking: Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Syria, South Sudan and Venezuela.

Over 70 countries are currently at Level 2, meaning the State Department recommends travelers “exercise increased caution” when traveling to those destinations.

Botswana became the newest Level 2 country on Feb. 26 after having previously been Level 1, with crime noted as the primary risk factor.

France, which saw nationwide protests throughout 2023, has civil unrest and terrorism noted as risk factors for its Level 2 status, and Sweden’s Level 2 status is associated with risks of terrorism.

The Level 2 travel advisory for the Bahamas was updated in January to reflect water safety concerns. The advisory warns that “activities involving commercial recreational watercraft, including water tours, are not consistently regulated” and notes that government personnel are “not permitted to use independently operated jet-ski rentals on New Providence and Paradise Islands.” It also warns visitors to be mindful of sharks, weather and water conditions. The advisory also says that crime is a primary risk factor with gang-on-gang violence contributing to high homicide rates in some areas. Visitors are asked to “be vigilant” and to not physically resist robbery attempts.

Bangladesh 's Level 2 travel advisory was updated in October 2023 to add a note about the country’s general election , which took place Jan. 7, 2024. The advisory states “demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence.” The U.S. has since claimed the country’s election was not free nor fair.

In November 2023, several Level 2 travel advisories were updated with new cautionary information. The advisory for Ghana was updated to reflect threats against LGBTQI+ travelers specifically, noting “anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric and violence have increased in recent years.” Meanwhile, the advisory for South Africa was updated in February to note that routes recommended by GPS may be unsafe with higher risk for crime.

Turkmenistan was moved off of the Level 2 list to become the newest addition to the Level 1 list on Jan. 22, meaning normal precautions are recommended but there are no risk factors causing travelers to practice increased caution.

The State Department asks travelers to pay attention to travel advisory levels and alerts , review country information pages for their destinations and read related country security reports before going abroad.

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Tourism to North Korea: Unethical or an opportunity for engagement?

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June 9, 2015

13 min read

“What is it like inside an American nightclub?” The question from a young North Korean woman startled me.

For so long, curiosity about the outside world was not just taboo for North Koreans, but also dangerous. North Korea strictly regulates interaction between North Koreans and foreigners, limiting travel overseas to official business and forbidding spontaneous, unmonitored visits between locals and visitors. With the “imperialist Yankees” remaining Enemy No. 1 for the North Koreans, travel to the United States is not an option for all but a few North Koreans. And slipping away to such a forbidden den of sin without approval would put any North Korean under grave suspicion of courting outside influence.

“I would love to take you to an American nightclub,” I said, both of us laughing at what seemed like a farfetched idea. She was dressed in a tailored black pantsuit, with the ubiquitous red Kim badge pinned over her heart. It was hard to picture her in a sweaty Williamsburg, Brooklyn, club with hip-hop pulsating in the background.

But I didn’t need to take her to Brooklyn to show her an American nightclub. Later that year, a foreign tour agency organized what was billed as the “first rave in Pyongyang” — a DJ night in the karaoke bar of the Koryo Hotel in the North Korean capital. It promised to be the best and only chance for me to show her what an American nightclub is like.

Tourism amid tensions

While most North Koreans are not free to travel to the United States, it is possible for Americans to visit North Korea. But tourism to North Korea is a tricky issue — morally, politically, financially.

Now that North Korea has lifted a harsh Ebola quarantine that blocked tourism to the country for nearly five months, foreign tour agencies are scrambling to lure visitors back with ads that promise “ big celebrations, dances and parades ” and golf greens so empty that “ it’s like having your own private course .”

But the environment for tourism to North Korea isn’t the same in 2015 as it was a decade ago. After a relatively conciliatory period in North Korea’s foreign policy, the past six years have been defined by tension: nuclear tests, missile launches, deadly maritime clashes, cyberattacks, threats of thermonuclear war, the arrests of tourists, executions of purged officials and growing scrutiny of the human rights situation in a country with sprawling prison camps. We should remember that North Korea has been undergoing a change of leadership from 17 years of rule under Kim Jong Il to a new era under his young son, Kim Jong Un, who took power following his father’s death in December 2011. And with the purges purportedly continuing as the younger Kim seeks to solidify his leadership, the climate of uncertainty promises to persist.

To go, or not to go?

As an American journalist who has traveled to North Korea dozens of times since 2008, living and working in the country as the first Associated Press (AP) bureau chief in Pyongyang , I often am asked whether I think tourism to North Korea is a good idea.

The questioner may be asking whether it’s a good idea for them, as a Westerner, to make the costly and potentially risky trip to North Korea as a tourist. But I also weigh the question of whether it’s good for the North Koreans, living in one of the world’s most isolated nations, to have foreign tourists visiting their country.

As tour agencies gear up to promote two big events this year, the 70th anniversary of the end of Japan’s occupation of Korea on Aug. 15 and the 70th anniversary of the Oct. 10 founding of the Korean Workers’ Party, it is worth taking a step back and looking at the issues framing the question of whether tourism to North Korea is a good idea.

Critics say foreigners who visit impoverished North Korea at prices comparable to travel to Switzerland are funneling hard currency to a regime that diverts the money to the elite, the military and to propaganda while the millions of North Koreans who go hungry every day do not benefit.

Advocates say tourism facilitates much-needed cross-cultural learning, with foreigners experiencing that North Koreans are as human as anyone else, and North Koreans getting information about life outside their borders through their visitors from abroad. The Obama administration has made very clear its stance on tourism to North Korea: Don’t go.

In April, the U.S. State Department issued its toughest travel advisory so far for North Korea, warning that tourists risk being “arrested, detained, or expelled for activities that would not be considered criminal outside North Korea.” Britain, which has an embassy in Pyongyang, in April warned its travelers that “the level of tension on the Korean peninsula can change with little notice.” And while “most visits are trouble-free,” the advisory noted the recent arrests of Americans.

Speaking with locals, exchanging currency, taking candid photos, shopping locally — these are all routine tourist behavior anywhere but in North Korea, where such basic activities are largely illegal for North Koreans In the DPRK, these are not casual actions and the state can easily declare them as espionage. Sentences for such crimes can mean “years of detention in hard labor camps or death,” according to the State Department advisory.

Don’t be naive about surveillance, the advisory warns. “Please keep in mind that you have no right to privacy in North Korea and should assume your communications are monitored.” Should you be detained, Washington does not have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang and cannot directly provide consular services, the advisory reminds travelers. And don’t count on the tour agencies to protect you. “Efforts by private tour operators to prevent or resolve past detentions of U.S. citizens … have not succeeded in gaining their release,” the warning says.

Indeed, arrests of Americans complicate the sensitive diplomatic dance between Washington and Pyongyang. In March 2009, two American journalists working for former Vice President Al Gore’s media company slipped across a frozen river border from China into North Korea and were swiftly arrested. They were convicted and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor on anti-state charges. It took a high-profile campaign and a private visit by former President Bill Clinton to secure their release later that year. A group photo of Clinton seated next to Kim Jong Il released by North Korea’s state news agency makes clear that the North Koreans treated the visit as a diplomatic victory.

It was a dangerous precedent to set. Since then, at least 10 Americans have been detained in North Korea, some sneaking in illegally like the two journalists but most entering the country with legitimate visas. Two were regular visitors to North Korea; most arrived on tourist visas. North Korea eventually released all the Americans, but not before dangling them as diplomatic bait.

The roles of tour operators

The two leading Western tour operators, Beijing-based British-operated Koryo Tours and the American-owned Uri Tours, both have had American tourists detained and held by the North Koreans over the past two years. An American traveling with Britain’s Juche Travel also was detained .

Koryo Tours, proud of its previous 20 years without any tourist arrests, has remained tight-lipped about the incident while Uri Tours has chosen to go public about its efforts to try to help secure the release of its detained American traveler. But in the process, the agency revealed how helpless it and its North Korean tourism partners are in preventing tourists from breaking the law and in protecting them from North Korea’s tightening security mechanism. And the circumstances of the arrest of 85-year-old Korean War veteran Merrill Newman underlined the perils of traveling with an outfit inexperienced in dealing with North Korea.

On top of the high-profile arrests, the agencies have had to deal with fiery threats from North Korea to wage “thermo-nuclear war” on South Korea, and with an Ebola quarantine that shut down tourism to North Korea starting last fall by requiring anyone arriving in the country from abroad to remain sequestered for 21 days.

Though visibly frustrated, the agencies kept up an incongruous chirpiness about tourism to North Korea as they refunded deposits and waited with practiced patience for yet another seemingly arbitrary North Korean rule to lift.

The arrests, war threats and the entry ban didn’t deter a trade fair in Britain from featuring a booth marketing travel to North Korea , and they did not slow North Korea’s own state media from trumpeting the regime’s campaign to promote tourism even as tourists weren’t allowed into the country.

Improving the economic situation is high on the regime’s agenda, and tourism is seen as one way to bring in hard currency and foreign investment.

Last year, North Korea unveiled a five-star ski resort that rises like the city of Oz in the vast, underdeveloped countryside. Workers commenced construction on turning the nearby port city of Wonsan into what North Korea envisions as a “world-famous tourist city.” A new university devoted to tourism, Pyongyang Tourism College, took in its first students. Tour operators from China and Europe were brought in to discuss investing in North Korea’s infrastructure.

Boots on the ground

There are, indeed, some stunning sights in North Korea. The white sand beaches off the coast of Hamhung are the most pristine I’ve seen on the Korean Peninsula. The hiking in this mountainous country, particularly in autumn when the leaves turn all shades of gold and red, is spectacular.

But let’s not pretend these trips are relaxing. During one visit to Mount Myohyang northwest of Pyongyang, a colleague and I went for a walk on the grounds of our hotel. We didn’t go far, but were sternly ushered back into the hotel by a security guard. Only then did I remember that in 2008, a South Korean tourist who went for a walk was shot to death by a soldier for wandering into a military site. Ties between North Korea and South Korea soured after that incident, with all cross-border tourism coming to a halt by the end of that year.

Who travels to North Korea, aside from the neighboring Chinese, Russians and ethnic Koreans from Japan? About 5,000 to 6,000 Westerners per year, according to Uri Tours. There are the adventure seekers who have North Korea at the top of a bucket list of bizarre destinations and are looking for tall tales to tell at dinner parties (“When I was in Pyongyang last summer” never fails to turn heads). There are those nostalgic for a Cold War time past who turn up wearing retro communist gear and return home with their own custom-made Mao suits. And there are many who are sincerely curious about life inside North Korea, for professional or personal reasons. (Full disclosure: Uri Tours booked my flights on North Korean carrier Air Koryo when I was AP bureau chief, and I traveled with the agency as a tourist after completing my Pyongyang post.)

Tourists pay luxury travel prices — Koryo Tours’ summer group trip is advertised for 1850 euros — for package tours to a country with an estimated GDP per capita of $1,800 in 2013 that puts North Korean on par with Uganda and Haiti. The prices are set by the North Koreans, with the foreign tour operators determining the markup. Nearly every aspect of the tour, from the hotels to the souvenir shops to the meals, is chosen from a list of venues approved for foreigners; i.e., where interaction with locals can be controlled. The tour agencies, particularly Koryo Tours, pushes hard to get its visitors into places typically off limits to foreigners, but the trips are still incredibly restrictive: No going for a wander, no stopping by into a local shop to buy souvenirs, no chatting up the locals without the guides present.

Most of the American tourists’ interaction with North Koreans is with their guides. Tour guides assigned to a group of foreign tourists are fluent in English. The tourists discover that North Koreans are as human as anyone else, despite what you might see in comedic portrayals such as “The Interview”: they smile, they laugh, they crack jokes. The Americans begin to think the North Koreans aren’t so bad after all. They fall a little bit in love. By expecting so little, they leave overwhelmed.

For the North Korean guides, the tourists provide a valuable glimpse of life abroad. They learn their travelers’ slang, hear their music and drink up tales about love and life in a world they likely will never visit. They see every manner of fashion and individualism: piercings, tattoos, dreadlocks and that evil American emblem, blue jeans. In their own way, they become experts in the world outside, even if they never step foot beyond their country’s borders. And that is no doubt valuable currency as North Korea embarks on the slow but inevitable road to opening up to the outside world.

Risks and rewards

We cannot, and should not, stop Americans from visiting North Korea. But both tour operators and tourists should be mindful of the changed, and charged, environment for Americans traveling in enemy territory:

Tour operators should be transparent and forthcoming about the security situation in North Korea, including the extensive nature of North Korea’s penal code and surveillance apparatus, the risk of arrest and the consequences of prosecution. They need to do their due diligence in protecting tourists by preparing them for the reality of life in North Korea, for visiting foreigners as well as locals.
American tourists should give careful and considered thought to the ethics and dangers of traveling to North Korea. They should keep in mind that much of the fee they pay goes to the state-run tourism agency, not directly to the people, and may want to consider tour operators that find a way to give back to the local population. They should remember that North Korea remains in a technical state of war with the United States, and should arrive having read both the State Department’s travel advisory and any travel advice laid out by their tour operator. While being open-minded, travelers to North Korea should also be mindful of the severity of local laws. Leave the Bibles behind.

If it weren’t for tourism, I would not have been able to give that young North Korean woman a taste of American nightlife. For one night in August 2012, the basement bar of the Koryo Hotel — a 1970s-kitsch lounge decorated with plastic plants and purple neon lighting that typically plays host to impassioned, drunken karaoke while a hostess in traditional Korean dress sings along — was transformed into a nightclub. There was no bouncer and no velvet rope. But there was a DJ in the corner, bobbing to the beat, and a tangle of tourists gyrating on the dance floor: American ultimate frisbee players, Chinese journalists and “middle-aged Romanian diplomats requesting obscure Romanian disco,” according to the DJ . On the playlist: Little Richard, Janet Jackson, The Village People.

The North Koreans, mostly guides and interpreters, watched with amusement and perhaps a little shock at the frenetic, disorganized, rowdy scene before them. In North Korea, each song has a prescribed set of dance steps, so the chaos that was unfolding, with each person caught up in his or her own private dance, was entirely foreign. And yet it was so perfectly Western: individualistic, energetic, spontaneous. It wasn’t long before some of the more adventurous North Koreans jumped in.

The verdict from my North Korean friend: “Too noisy.”

It was the safest answer for a North Korean to give when confronted with such an American pastime as “disco dancing.” But her shining eyes, and the smile on her face, said otherwise.

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US extends ban on American passports for travel to NKorea

FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2019, file photo a woman holds American and North Korean flags as she walks along Sword Lake in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Biden administration has extended for one year a Trump-era ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea. The ban had first been imposed by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 after the death of American student Otto Warmbier who suffered grievous injuries while in North Korean custody. It has been extended annually ever since. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has extended for one year a Trump-era ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea.

The ban makes it illegal to use a U.S. passport for travel to, from or through North Korea, also known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or the DPRK, unless the document has been specially validated. Such validations are granted by the State Department only in the case of compelling national interest.

Warmbier was part of a group tour of North Korea and was leaving the country in January 2016 when he was arrested for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. He was later convicted of subversion and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In June 2017, North Korean authorities reported to U.S. officials that Warmbier had suffered extensive injuries while in custody, and President Donald Trump’s administration sent a delegation to repatriate him.

Comatose, Warmbier died in a Cincinnati hospital six days after his return to the U.S. Shortly thereafter, Tillerson imposed the ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea.

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Lift the US Travel Ban on North Korea?

By Paulina Song on July 23, 2021

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon dashed any hopes United States policymakers had for renewed talks when he said on June 23, “We are not considering even the possibility of any contact with the US… which would get us nowhere, only taking up precious time.”

Indeed, contact between the US and North Korea has diminished considerably after the Trump administration imposed a geographical travel restriction on North Korea for US passport holders. While up to one thousand Americans used to visit North Korea every year, that number became practically none after 2017, save for limited numbers of journalists and humanitarian workers who qualify for special validation passports.

LIFT (Let Individuals Freely Travel)—a joint initiative of the Korea Peace Network, Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network, and Peace Treaty Now—hosted a discussion on June 23 titled, “LIFT for Peace: End the Travel Ban to North Korea.” The event featured a statement from Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, representing Illinois’s 9th congressional district, and three panelists who have over four decades of collective experience working in North Korea: Choon Lim, a separated family member, Joy Yoon, a humanitarian worker, and Kee Park, a doctor.

Despite their different backgrounds and vocations, they presented a unified message: “Please lift the ban.”

Congresswoman Schakowsky—an original co-sponsor of House Resolution 152, which called for a formal end to the Korean War—opened the appeal by noting that “one of the most heartbreaking aspects and costs of the unresolved Korean War is the separation of families. It’s estimated there may be ten million people who are separated from their families, and the oldest of the generations is 80 and beyond. Many of them have lost family who have died during this period.”

An estimated one hundred thousand of that ten million live in the US, according to Lim, a member of the National Committee for North Korea. Lim himself was forced from his hometown of Nampo at age six when it was bombed by US forces during the Korean War.

“Allow these separated families to have closure and be given the opportunity to go home,” Lim pleaded. “There is a truly short time left for them.”

The only way for Korean Americans to visit their family members in North Korea is if the travel ban is lifted. However, one may question why the burden must fall on the US to allow free travel to North Korea rather than the other way around. Obviously, North Korea will not allow its citizens to leave the country for fear of defection, but therein lies the bigger problem. There would be no need for a travel ban in the first place if North Korea was a law-abiding, human-rights-respecting, responsible member of the international community.

The main reason for implementing the travel ban was due to concerns over the safety of US citizens. In particular, the death of Otto Warmbier—a 22-year-old college student accused of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from a North Korean hotel—played an instrumental part in the decision to implement the ban.

“There is no doubt that the situation with Otto Warmbier was a tragedy,” said Yoon, who co-founded IGNIS Community , an organization that provides treatment for children with developmental disabilities in North Korea. “But the fact is that it was more of a tragedy because it was completely preventable.”

However, many question whether Warmbier’s arrest, like others before him, was not entwined with political motivations. “Despite official claims that US citizens arrested in the DPRK are not used for political purposes, it’s increasingly clear from its very public treatment of these cases that the DPRK does exactly that,” said US State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

Lee Min-yong, the chief advisor of the Sookmyung Research Institute of Global Governance in South Korea, referred to North Korea’s actions as a form of “ hostage diplomacy .”

The panelists, however, emphasized that following the rules should keep you safe. Park explained, “We’ve analyzed that… 20 US citizens were actually detained in North Korea. Of the 20, actually eight entered into North Korea illegally. They violated the borders. The other eight were charged with… breaking the law. If you go to Yemen and you start evangelizing, they’ll probably arrest you.”

Indeed, a Korean-American missionary, Kenneth Bae, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in 2012 for “attempt[ing] to overthrow North Korea.” The problem is not simply following the rules. The problem is that the kind of authoritarian rules that govern North Korea are fundamentally incompatible with human flourishing.

The regime has a history of gross crimes against humanity . The COVID-19 pandemic has also worsened the humanitarian situation in North Korea, and the US Department of Agriculture’s International Food Security Assessment, 2020-30 estimated that nearly 60 percent of North Koreans are food insecure.

Yoon, however, pointed to the dire situation as a reason to lift the ban.

“It takes years to navigate and request all the necessary governmental permits and licenses, which includes not only special validation passports and UN exemptions, but also US treasury and commerce licenses,” she said. “As a humanitarian organization working on the ground in North Korea, this significantly delays life-saving aid and treatment.”

Park blamed the situation on political decisions and stressed the need for accountability: “According to our estimates, up to 4,000 people could have died as a result of the sanctions, delays, and funding cuts… You [countries imposing the sanctions] said these are not designed to harm ordinary people of North Korea or hinder humanitarian work but it is. What are you going to do about it?”

While the need for humanitarian relief in North Korea is strong, it is important to recognize that the main perpetrator and perpetuator of this crisis is the regime itself.

North Korea is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranking 216 out of 228 countries by GDP per capita. It also has the world’s fourth-largest standing army. Aid is often redirected away from the intended recipients. The money North Korea earns from foreign tourists goes into feeding its missile program, not its starving citizens.

Moreover, some groups have seen their efforts co-opted by the regime. Presbyterian minister Moses Lee notes in Providence that an evangelical-led university may have been used to train students to conduct “cyber-terrorism” or contribute to the rapid improvement in North Korea’s nuclear program. Lee cautions evangelicals that well-meaning efforts now that inadvertently support the regime could draw parallels in the minds of a future free North Korean population “between North Korea’s corrupt elite who partnered with evangelical educators and the former Imperial Japan with its Korean collaborators.”

Even for individual humanitarian organizations that are doing good work on the ground, their work will always be a response, not a resolution for the main problem: North Korea’s human rights-abusing dictatorship.

The North Korea travel ban is an unfortunate policy that has caused separated families much pain and has prevented humanitarian organizations from operating at their full capacities. However, if we want separated families to be reunited for good—not just for Korean Americans, but for South Koreans and others as well—and for the humanitarian crisis in North Korea to end, we must set our policies to resolve the main problem, not just the symptoms.

Paulina Song is a rising senior at Georgetown University, studying international politics and religion, ethics, and world affairs. She is a summer 2021 intern with the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Providence is the only publication devoted to Christian Realism in American foreign policy and is entirely funded by donor contributions. There are no advertisements, sponsorships, or paid posts to support the work of Providence , just readers who generously partner with Providence to keep our magazine running. If you would care to make a donation it would be highly appreciated to help Providence in advancing the Christian realist perspective in 2024. Thank you!

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US and Asia allies push for new panel to monitor North Korea sanctions

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Chinese official talks with North Korean counterpart in the nations' highest-level meeting in years

Choe Ryong Hae, center right, and Zhao Leji, center left, at the Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — A top Chinese official arrived in North Korea and held talks on how to strengthen their cooperation, North Korea’s state media reported Friday, in the countries’ highest-level meeting in about five years.

Zhao Leji, who is chairman of China’s National People’s Congress and considered the No. 3 official in the ruling Communist Party, arrived in North Korea on Thursday. China’s government earlier said he would stay in North Korea until Saturday.

Zhao met his North Korean counterpart, Choe Ryong Hae, later Thursday and discussed how to promote exchanges and cooperation in all areas including politics, economy and culture, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The two also exchanged views on unspecified regional and international issues of mutual concern, KCNA said.

Zhao is one of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Communist Party’s top leadership body headed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping . Zhao’s visit to North Korea marked the first bilateral exchange involving a Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member since the coronavirus pandemic started. In 2019, the two countries held two summit meetings between Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un .

Observers say North Korea and China are expected to hold a number of exchanges this year to mark the 75th year since they established diplomatic ties.

North Korea has been seeking to strengthen its cooperation with China and Russia in the face of a standoff with the United States and South Korea over the North’s advancing nuclear program.

China, North Korea’s biggest aid benefactor, is believed to have long provided clandestine assistance to North Korea in violation of international sanctions.

Kim traveled to Russia in September for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin . The U.S., South Korea and others accuse North Korea of supplying conventional weapons for Russia’s war in Ukraine in return for advanced weapons technologies and other support.

The Associated Press

US seeks new mechanism to monitor North Korean sanctions

Washington looking for alternatives after Russia effectively halted UN monitoring mission.

Kim Jong Un with military commanders. They are wearing uniform. He is dressed in black, and wearing a leather bomber jacket

The United States is investigating options to create a new mechanism for monitoring sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear programme.

The US ambassador to the United Nations said on Wednesday that Washington is looking at options within and outside the UN. Russia last month vetoed a UN Security Council resolution to renew the UN panel that has been overseeing Pyongyang’s compliance with international sanctions.

Keep reading

Russia blocks renewal of un panel monitoring north korea sanctions, north korea says kim jong un oversaw test of new hypersonic weapon, north korea’s kim oversees ‘super-large’ rocket launcher drills, north korea claims progress in development of hypersonic missile.

The US is looking to engage with allies South Korea, Japan and other “like-minded” countries on alternatives, Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters.

“The point here is that we cannot allow the work that the panel of experts were doing to lapse,” she declared.

Moscow’s veto effectively abolished the regime, which was established to monitor North Korea’s compliance with UN sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes nearly 20 years ago.

The Russian move follows accusations from the US, South Korea and others that Pyongyang is supplying Moscow with weapons to use in its war in Ukraine.

Thomas-Greenfield provided no details about the discussions. In particular, whether the alternative monitoring regime might more likely be established through the UN General Assembly or entirely outside the UN.

She claimed it is clear that Russia and China, which abstained from voting on the UN resolution that was vetoed by Moscow, will continue to try to block international efforts to maintain monitoring of UN sanctions against North Korea.

“I don’t expect that they will cooperate or agree with any efforts that we make to find another path, but that is not going to stop us from finding that path moving forward,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

The UNSC imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking – so far unsuccessfully – to cut funds and curb its nuclear and missile programmes.

The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017.

The UNSC established a committee to monitor sanctions, and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until last month.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has recently overseen an accelerated programme of missile testing and ordered heightened readiness for war .

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North Korea Travel Advisory
North Korea Travel Advice & Safety
U.S. sees 'serious escalation' in North Korea launches using new ICBM
Getting help
Engage North Korea : US slaps new travel warning on North Korea due to
U.S. reissues North Korea travel advisory

COMMENTS

North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) Travel Advisory
Travel Advisory. July 24, 2023. North Korea - Level 4: Do Not Travel. O D. Reissued with obsolete COVID-19 page links removed. Do not travel to North Korea due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals. Exercise increased caution to North Korea due to the critical threat of wrongful detention.
Travel Advisories
North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) Travel Advisory: Level 4: Do Not Travel: July 24, 2023: South Korea Travel Advisory: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions: July 24, 2023: Kosovo Travel Advisory: Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution: July 26, 2023: Kuwait Travel Advisory: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions: July 13, 2023
Korea, North
US State Dept Travel Advisory. The US Department of State currently recommends US citizens DO NOT TRAVEL to North Korea due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. nationals. Exercise increased caution to North Korea due to the critical threat of wrongful detention.
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The Biden administration is extending for another year a ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea, the State Department said Tuesday. The ban was imposed in 2017 and has been ...
NORTH KOREA TRAVEL WARNING
Beijing, China 100600. Telephone: (86-10) 8531-4000. Email: [email protected]. Emergency after-hours number for U.S. citizens: (86-10) 8531-4000. • U.S. citizens traveling to North Korea are also strongly encouraged to contact the Embassy of Sweden by email prior to travel. Please provide the Embassy of Sweden with your name, date of birth ...
State Department renews ban on use of US passports for travel to North
FILE - The cover of a U.S. Passport is displayed in Tigard, Ore., Dec. 11, 2021. The Biden administration is extending for another year a ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea, the State Department said Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. The ban was imposed in 2017 and has been renewed every year since.
Lift or Extend Travel Ban for U.S. Citizens to North Korea?
In the summer of 2017 Rex Tillerson, during his tenure as Secretary of State for the first 13 months of the Trump administration, authorized a " Geographical Travel Restriction " prohibiting U.S. citizens from traveling "into, through or in North Korea.". The travel prohibition became effective on September 1, 2017, and it was valid for ...
Korean War continues with US renewal of travel ban to North
On August 22, the US State Department renewed its ban on the use of American passports for travel to North Korea. This travel ban prohibits as many as 100,000 Korean-Americans living in the United States from visiting their relatives in North Korea. The ban was first set in place by the Donald Trump administration in 2017, and in spite of ...
US extends ban on citizens' travel to North Korea for seventh year
The U.S. has extended a ban on American citizens entering North Korea for a seventh consecutive year, the State Department announced Tuesday. The ban prevents U.S. passport holders from traveling "to, in, or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel.". The one-year renewal will go into effect on Sept. 1.
Safety and security
North Korea and the United States also restored contact at this time. North Korea resumed missile tests in 2019, after the breakdown of the Hanoi Summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un.
Americans Can't Visit North Korea. Some Who Have Family There ...
Almost 100 South Koreans crossed the armed border to the North to meet their separated families. The U.S. bars citizens from entering North Korea, but some Korean Americans hope the Biden administration will lift the ban and let them visit again. Updated August 27, 2021 at 1:04 PM ET. SEOUL — The Biden administration has to decide by the end ...
Tourism in North Korea
Restrictions and warnings. Interactions between foreign tourists and local people have historically been tightly controlled. As of January 2013, foreigners can buy SIM cards at Pyongyang airport, providing access to international calling.. The Swedish diplomatic mission to North Korea emphasises that contempt for the North Korean nation, its leaders and its symbols such as its national flag ...
Places the U.S. Government Warns Not to Travel Right Now
So far in 2024, the State Department made changes to the existing Level 4 advisories for Myanmar, Iran and Gaza, and moved Niger and Lebanon off of the Level 4 list. Places With a Level 4 Travel ...
Tourism to North Korea: Unethical or an opportunity for engagement
The Obama administration has made very clear its stance on tourism to North Korea: Don't go. In April, the U.S. State Department issued its toughest travel advisory so far for North Korea ...
US extends ban on American passports for travel to NKorea
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has extended for one year a Trump-era ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea. The ban had first been imposed by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 after the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who suffered grievous injuries while in North Korean custody.
Biden's UN Envoy Will Visit Demilitarized Zone With North Korea
The US ambassador to the United Nations will travel to the North Korean border as the Biden administration looks to reaffirm support for Asian allies and draw attention to a breakdown in Security ...
Lift the US Travel Ban on North Korea?
The COVID-19 pandemic has also worsened the humanitarian situation in North Korea, and the US Department of Agriculture's International Food Security Assessment, 2020-30 estimated that nearly 60 percent of North Koreans are food insecure. Yoon, however, pointed to the dire situation as a reason to lift the ban.
US and Asia allies push for new panel to monitor North Korea sanctions
The U.S., South Korea and Japan are pushing for a new multi-national panel of experts, possibly outside the U.N., to ensure sanctions enforcement against North Korea after Russia and China ...
Chinese official talks with North Korean counterpart in the nations
April 12, 2024, 2:30 AM PDT / Source: The Associated Press. By The Associated Press. SEOUL, South Korea — A top Chinese official arrived in North Korea and held talks on how to strengthen their ...
China is sending its highest-level delegation to North Korea ...
China's highest-level visit in nearly five years comes as North Korea aims to strengthen ties with Beijing and Moscow amid coordination between US and its neighbors.
US seeks new mechanism to monitor North Korean sanctions
The United States is investigating options to create a new mechanism for monitoring sanctions on North Korea's nuclear programme. The US ambassador to the United Nations said on Wednesday that ...

Update April 12, 2024

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