Should Americans Be Banned From Traveling to North Korea?
The Yanggakdo International Hotel, left, in Pyongyang, where U.S. student Otto Warmbier was alleged to have removed a political poster from staff quarters.
Photographer: Ed Jones/AFP via Gett Images
The U.S. State Department urges Americans to avoid traveling to more than three dozen nations, including such troubled locales as Libya, Cameroon, and Venezuela. Still, obtain a valid passport and permission from the ostracized nation, and you can go there relatively freely.
This freedom may soon be curtailed for those wishing to visit the most famous member of the club: North Korea. Following the death of a college student from Ohio who was held prisoner for 17 months in the reclusive nation, the U.S. is considering a full ban. The State Department has already warned Americans to avoid North Korea due to “serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement.”