Increasing concerns over the danger of being arrested and detained in North Korea have led the U.S. Department of State to limit Americans from traveling there. The ban is expected to go into effect on September 1.
“The safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas is among our greatest priorities,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement.
North Korea Travel Ban
The statement came following an American traveler died days after being discharged from incarceration from North Korea. Arrested during a trip in January 2016 for trying to sneak a poster, university student Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment with hard labor; he died days after being returned to the U.S. at a coma in June.
Tour companies operating in North Korea was weighing restrictions on Americans since Warmbier’s passing. Young Pioneer Tours, the ensemble Warmbier traveled with, stated it would not accept Americans . When the ban has been declared Uri Tours was in the process of reviewing its policy tour director Elliott Davies said.
The restriction is unfortunate, stated Brian Saylor of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, that arrived home after a tour of North Korea just days after Warmbier expired. He traveled with Uri Tours.
“Do not get me wrong: I was apprehensive on that excursion,” said Saylor, a 40-year-old police officer and Army veteran who spent five days in North Korea during a month travel in Asia. “We get the impression from our own media coverage that this really is a dark, oppressive, tyrannical state which everybody is miserable and hungry. But it’s not true.”
While he was there, Saylor said he was asked by North Koreans concerning why there was so much tension with the United States, and about the Warmbier scenario. Saylor noted that if the U.S. government isn’t going to have formal diplomatic relations with North Korea, people traveling into the country for sports, tourism, or even the arts may engage in citizen-to-citizen dialogue.
Why did he decide to go to North Korea? Saylor was stationed in South Korea during his period in the U.S. Army and later spent a semester studying overseas there. The mystique of the country to the north interested him and he decided to visit North Korea in spring 2017.
The trip dispelled a number of myths that he had in his thoughts about people, Saylor said. “You see some ethnic similarities between North and South Korea. You see it as one country linguistically and culturally. But they’ve lived a very different economic life for the past 60 years or so.”
Travelers still confront quandaries when contemplating traveling to a country with policies — and from other nations can still go, though Americans will not be able to travel to North Korea. Saylor said before reserving his excursion, he gave thought to this.
“I don’t gloss over human rights issues,” he explained. But ultimately, he determined that tourism–like music, sports, and the arts–serves as “a small gateway to open up some sort of conversation”
Such an examination is what the organization Ethical Traveler suggests travellers do when determining whether to attend a destination like North Korea: Consider how you can minimize negative impacts and maximize positive ones.
“In this circumstance, we imply mindfulness in conditions of [if you’re] supporting the plan and regarding the danger to each individual traveler,” says Ethical Traveler co-founder Michael McColl.
Four types of Americans may have the ability to visit North Korea according to the State Department. The categories are now journalists covering North Korea, American Red Cross or International Committee of the Red Cross staff on official business, other help employees with “compelling humanitarian considerations,” and travelers whose excursions have been deemed in “the national interest.”
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