WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Trump administration’s ban on Americans traveling to North Korea (all times local):
11:35 a.m.
The State Department says Americans who seek to travel to North Korea will need a “special validation passport” after a ban on U.S. citizens traveling there takes effect.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert says those validations may be granted for “certain limited humanitarian or other purposes.” All other travel by Americans “to, through and in” North Korea will be prohibited.
Nauert says that the State Department intends to publish a notice of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s decision in the Federal Register next week. She says the travel ban will take effect 30 days later.
Nauert says the ban is being put in place because of “mounting concerns” about “the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement.”
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7:15 a.m.
U.S. officials say the Trump administration will ban American citizens from traveling to North Korea following the death of university student Otto Warmbier, who passed away after falling into a coma into a North Korean prison.
The officials said Friday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had determined to implement a “geographical travel restriction” for North Korea, which would make the use of U.S. passports to enter the country illegal. They said the restriction would go into effect 30 days after a notice is published in the Federal Register, but it was not immediately clear when that would be. There was no announcement in Friday’s editions of the government publication.
The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the decision before it is announced and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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