The State Department is urging U.S. citizens not to travel to North Korea given the high risk of arrest and long-term detention, noting that more than a dozen Americans have been detained by the repressive regime in the last decade.
The warning comes months after North Korea arrested and detained an American college student on a charge of committing a hostile act against the state. Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia student, was later sentenced to 15 years hard labor for allegedly removing a political banner from a hotel.
The State Department on Thursday said that Americans should avoid all travel to North Korea "due to the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement, which imposes unduly harsh sentences, including for actions that in the United States would not be considered crimes and which threaten U.S. citizen detainees with being treated in accordance with ‘wartime law of the DPRK,’" according to an updated travel warning.
North Korea has treated as crimes showing disrespect for its former leaders, possessing material critical toward the government, entering the country with pornography, and "having unauthorized interaction with the local population," according to the department.
Individuals who travel to the country as part of a tour group are equally at risk of arrest and detention as those who travel independently, the department emphasized. Warmbier was part of a travel group organized by Young Pioneer Tours, a China-based travel company, when he was arrested in January. Calls by the United States, which has no formal diplomatic ties with North Korea, for the release of Warmbier have been unsuccessful.
"At least 14 U.S. citizens have been detained in North Korea in the past ten years. North Korean authorities have detained those who traveled independently and those who were part of organized tours," the warning stated. "Being a member of a group tour or using a tour guide will not prevent North Korean authorities from detaining or arresting you. Efforts by private tour operators to prevent or resolve past detentions of U.S. citizens in the DPRK have not been successful."
The U.S. government has no way to provide consular services to Americans in North Korea and relies on the Embassy of Sweden in Pyongyang to provide limited services to U.S. citizens traveling there.
"Numerous foreigners have been held in North Korea for extended periods of time without being formally charged with any crimes," the warning said. "Detained foreigners have been questioned daily for several weeks without the presence of counsel and have been compelled to make public statements and take part in public trials."
North Korea is subject to international sanctions for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests, and the U.S. recently sanctioned leader Kim Jong Un for human rights abuses.