State Department bans American travel to North Korea starting Sept. 1

The State Department announced Wednesday that starting Sept. 1, U.S. passport holders will be banned from traveling to North Korea, and urged Americans already in the country to leave before then.

The move follows the death of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea before he was sent back to the U.S. in a coma on June 13; he died less than a week later. Tensions are also high between the U.S. and North Korea due to North Korea's testing of several intercontinental ballistic missiles over the last month.

The ban makes passports invalid for travel to, in, or through North Korea, and will be in place for one year, unless the secretary of state extends or revokes it. Humanitarian workers and journalists will be able to apply for exemptions from the ban.

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