US extends travel ban on North Korea for one year: report

In this Feb. 27, 2019, file photo a woman holds American and North Korean flags as she walks along Sword Lake in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Biden administration has extended for one year a Trump-era ban on the use of U.S. passports for travel to North Korea. AP-Yonhap

The United States has extended its travel ban on North Korea for one year, marking the first extension of the travel restrictions under the Joe Biden administration, a report said Wednesday.

The State Department announced the extension of the ban until Aug. 31, 2022 in a Federal Register notice set to be published Thursday, according to the report by the Associated Press.

"The Department of State has determined there continues to be serious risk to U.S. citizens and nationals of arrest and long-term detention constituting imminent danger to their physical safety," the department said in the notice, according to the report.

"Accordingly, all U.S. passports shall remain invalid for travel to, in, or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel under the authority of the secretary of state." DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

The travel ban was initially imposed in 2017 after the death of Otto Warmbier, an American student who had suffered serious injuries while in North Korean custody for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster.

Warmbier returned home in a comatose condition in June 2017 but died six days later. (Yonhap)