Will Americans be banned from Korea?

Two travel agencies specializing in trips to North Korea say the US government is about to impose a ban on US citizens traveling to North Korea after the deaths of students arrested last year by Pyongyang.
According to Reuters, travel agency Koryo Tours said the ban on citizenship to the North will be issued by the US government on July 27 and will take effect 30 days later.

According to Koryo Tours, the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular matters in place of the United States in North Korea, has not been informed of the ban by the two countries without diplomatic relations. However, the Swedish embassy did not disclose the duration of the ban.

"It seems that just over a month, US citizens will not be able to go to Korea as tourists," Koryo Tours manager Simon Cockrell told Reuters.

Another travel agency, Young Pioneer Tours, also shared on its website that they had been notified of a US government ban, of which the date of the ban also coincided with the information provided by Koryo Tours.

"After a 30-day grace period, the US government will disable the passports of any US citizen who wants to go to Korea," Young Pioneer Tours said.

Young Pioneer is also the tour operator who organized a trip to Korea for American student Otto Warmbier in late 2015.

Otto Warmbier died last month after being freed by North Korea (Photo: Reuters)
Otto Warmbier died last month after being freed by North Korea (Photo: Reuters)
Otto Warmbier was arrested by the Korean government and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after accusing the student of deliberately stole a propaganda banners at a hotel in Korea.

In June this year, North Korea released Warmbier to the United States in a coma and 22-year-old youth were killed several days later. There is still much doubt surrounding Warmbier's death.