United States to ban American citizens from travel to North Korea, tour groups say

(CBS News) A tour operator that runs organized trips into North Korea announced Friday that it had been told the United States would soon ban its citizens from traveling to the "Hermit Kingdom."

Young Pioneer Tours, the company with which American student Otto Warmbier used to travel to North Korea, released a statement via Twitter which said that the ban would come into force within 30 days of July 27.

Young Pioneer Tours @YPioneerTours

#BREAKING Read statement regarding the US travel ban to DPRK here: http://bit.ly/2tlY2NS 

3:05 AM - 21 Jul 2017

Statement regarding US citizens Traveling to North Korea | Young Pioneer Tours

We have just been informed that the US government will no longer be allowing US citizens to travel to the DPRK (North Korea). It is expected

youngpioneertours.com

 
•  33 Retweets
 
•  33 likes

"After the 30 day grace period any US national that travels to North Korea will have their passport invalidated by their government," the statement said.

According to the Reuters news agency, another tour operator which runs trips into North Korea, Koryo Tours, also said they had been told about the ban, adding that they did not know how long it would last.

Otto Warmbier, an American student at University of Virginia, was medically evacuated from imprisonment in North Korea after having been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He was accused by the North Korean government of trying to steal a propaganda banner and was convicted of subversion.