US revokes visa-free entry for visitors to North Korea

Seen above is the screen capture of a notification stating that South Korean nationals who have visited North Korea since March 2011 will not be able to enter the United States via the current Visa Waiver Program. Screen capture from U.S. Customs and Border Protection

By Lee Min-hyung

South Koreans who have visited North Korea since March 2011 are no longer allowed to enter the United States via a visa waiver procedure.

As of Tuesday, travelers from 38 countries, including the South, are not allowed to visit the U.S. under the current Visa Waiver Program (VWP), the U.S. Department of State said.

So far, South Korean nationals have been able to travel to the U.S. more easily by using an automated visa waiver system, called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) under the VWP.

From now on, however, those who have entered the North or stayed there during the aforementioned period need to visit the U.S. Embassy in Seoul and get a relevant visa, depending on the purpose of their U.S. trip, according to Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The South Korean government granted permission to about 37,000 South Korean nationals to visit the North during the period.

“The updated measure does not ban South Koreans with a record of visiting the North from entering the U.S.,” a foreign ministry official said. “They can visit the U.S. by receiving different types of visas from the U.S. embassy here.”

The procedure was introduced as part of Washington's amended administrative measure after the country designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in November 2017.

The North was excluded from the list in 2008, but was designated again months after Otto Warmbier's death in June 2017. The late American college student was detained in the North in 2016, but was returned to the U.S. in a coma the following year.

With the North added to the terrorism sponsor list, nationals of the VWP countries who have visited the North should abide by the U.S.' improved VWP and terrorist travel prevention law.

Under the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, citizens from VWP countries who traveled to Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia or Yemen after March 1, 2011, are not allowed to be admitted to the U.S. under the VWP.

But discussions are still underway between authorities from Seoul and Washington to fine-tune details over how to implement the updated measure.

Given the unique nature of inter-Korean relations, there are no passport records of South Korean nationals' visits to the North.

“The U.S. has yet to ask South Korea for the list of South Korean nationals who received permission to visit the North,” an official from the Ministry of Unification said.

“We need to wait and see what kind of specific measures the U.S. embassy will implement under the updated legal procedure,” he said.

An official from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said such details would soon be fine-tuned by the U.S. authority.

“It still remains to be seen how the U.S. authority will technically identify South Korean nationals' record of visits to North Korea,” an official from the embassy said.

The foreign ministry said it would continue to have close consultation with the U.S. embassy to minimize any possible inconveniences South Korean nationals may experience.

“We are going to make additional notifications to the public after confirming details,” a ministry official said.

The updated measure also makes exceptions on those who traveled to the North for “diplomatic or military purposes in the service of a VWP country.”

The scope of the exceptions will also be discussed between the two interested parties, according to the foreign ministry.

But expectations are that Washington will soon request that Seoul share the information on the list of South Korean nationals who received permission to visit the North. This is because the U.S. authority has no other way to collect such information on its own.

The foreign ministry and the U.S. authority did not share specific timelines over when such details will be shared with the public.