US travel ban to the ‘hermit state’ has a tortured history

Prohibiting Americans from visiting North Korea prevents them from being held to political ransom and sends a message that Pyongyang is out of line, says Andray Abrahamian

Sixty-four years after North Korea and the United States signed an armistice to suspend the Korean War, the US State Department has forbidden American citizens from travelling to the hermit state. The notice was put in the federal register on August 2; it became effective last Friday.

The travel ban is an easy pick amongst a platter of bad choices for Donald Trump, the US president. He has not yet elaborated on his warning to North Korea that “all options are on the table”, after Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan, but the travel ban could be a small sign of what is to come.