spot_img
27.7 C
Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

North Korea Is No Place for US Tourists

- Advertisement -

IT’S EASIER for American tourists to travel to North Korea than to Cuba. It’s also more dangerous, as the death this week of college student Otto Warmbier after 17 months of North Korean captivity shows.

But never mind the absurdity of President Donald Trump’s reimposition of travel restrictions to a relatively open and safe island 90 miles off the American coast. To prevent future deaths and protect US national security, Congress should ban US tourist travel to Kim Jong Un’s reclusive police state.

This file photo taken on Feb. 29, 2016 and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on March 1, 2016 shows US student Otto Frederick Warmbier (right), who was arrested for committing hostile acts against North Korea, speaking at a press conference in Pyongyang. Warmbier died June 19, 2017 of severe brain damage, following 18 months of captivity in North Korea. His family has asked that no autopsy be performed on the body of the US student who died days after being evacuated in a coma from North Korean detention. AFP

True, North Korea is not exactly a popular destination for US tourists. Of the 100,000 foreigners who visited North Korea in 2016, slightly more than 1 percent were American (most were Chinese). 

North Korea’s efforts to spark a tourist boom—including by loosening its restrictions on US tourists in 2010—have been a bust. 

What US travelers to North Korea have provided the regime, unfortunately, is a ready supply of hostages. These Americans are then used as pawns in diplomatic negotiations with the US. 

- Advertisement -

Over the last decade, at least 17 US citizens have been detained in North Korea, and three remain in captivity.

A bipartisan bill in the House of Representatives would ban US tourist travel and penalize those who seek to arrange it. (Travel for other purposes—humanitarian assistance, for instance—would still be possible on a case-by-case basis.) Congress should pass it speedily.

The US should also make clear to South Korea that, under current conditions, plans to use a North Korean ski resort in the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in Seoul would be seen less as a peace gesture to the North than as a slap in the face to Americans.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles