The US has renewed draconian North Korea travel ban, yet again

The State Department announced Wednesday that it would extend its travel ban to North Korea for the eighth consecutive year. With this decision, the Biden administration has missed yet another opportunity to send a signal that it is serious about diplomatic engagement with North Korea.

As a former civil rights attorney and a Korean American from a divided family, I know that we can only have peace when this travel ban is lifted.

Ever since President Trump imposed a travel ban to North Korea in 2017, all U.S. passport holders have been banned from traveling to North Korea. This “Geographic Travel Restriction” represents the strictest set of U.S.-imposed international travel restrictions, currently only applied to North Korea. 

With the recent sudden resignation of Ambassador Jung Pak, the top U.S. diplomat for North Korea issues, the Biden administration has been facing a crisis. No announcement has yet been made for Park’s successor, leaving U.S. policy for North Korea rudderless at a time of increasing tension between the two countries, following yet another spate of provocative war drills, including with U.S. nuclear forces, just last week. 

This follows the trend of the U.S. failing to invest in diplomacy, while simultaneously increasing investments in military personnel, with over 70 percent of the federal government’s workforce being “defense-related,” while the diplomacy-related workforce hovers at a measly 1 percent. Without strong diplomatic leadership from the United States, relations with North Korea will continue to deteriorate, leading to an increased risk of an outbreak of fighting and potential nuclear warfare. All the while, Russia will increasingly engage North Korea.

Prior to the 2017 travel ban, thousands of U.S. nationals – including many Korean Americans – traveled annually to North Korea without incident, playing an important role in citizen diplomacy. Since the early 1990s, U.S. humanitarian organizations also sent hundreds of aid workers to North Korea every year. 

Despite this most recent renewal, there had been some indications that the Biden administration had been willing to ease restrictions. Last year, the State Department indicated greater openings for humanitarian aid and family reunions. Humanitarian organizations have also received multi-entry special validation passports. And in June, Julie Turner, the U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, called family reunions “a matter of utmost urgency,” recognizing that many divided family members are in their 80s and 90s and time is running out for them to reunite with their relatives.

Additionally, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control earlier this year expanded the ability of non-government organizations to engage in humanitarian activities vis-à-vis North Korea. This renewed travel ban policy is therefore at risk of undermining the most recent sanctions regulations. 

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea has restricted travel into the country but has since announced plans to “revitalize international tourism” from “friendly” nations. While Russia increasingly engages North Korea, U.S. non-engagement with North Korea remains stagnant despite popular support for diplomacy. 

There are severe costs to this total absence of diplomatic dialogue. 

Under this eight-year travel ban, we have missed opportunities not only to reunite families, but also for people-to-people exchanges that would include discussing climate policies and disability rights — topics on which North Korea has previously engaged with international bodies and offer pathways towards engagement.

We are also missing windows to pursue dialogue on gender-based reforms. Further, in the absence of people-to-people exchanges, the U.S. public remains uneducated and uninformed, and falls prey too easily to misinformation campaigns about North Korea. 

We also saw the costs of this current stagnant state last July when Private Travis King fled from South Korea into North Korea while facing disciplinary charges. For months, the U.S. government scrambled to establish communications through interlocutors in the Swedish and Chinese governments. When King was released, the U.S. government acknowledged the Swedish and Chinese governments for their roles but did not make any ostensible changes in its diplomatic approaches to North Korea.

The ongoing travel ban to North Korea has implications across the globe. Heightened U.S. militarized posturing exacerbates the risk of nuclear warfare with North Korea. The U.S. has failed to pursue a peace agreement, and the ongoing state of war between the two Koreas harms the global environment.

By renewing yet again this Trump-era policy, the Biden administration has failed to listen to the U.S. public and pursue a different approach. In addition to divided family members, everyday people in North Korea, South Korea and the United States will all suffer from these consequences.

Cathi Choi is co-director of Women Cross DMZ and co-coordinator of the Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network.