Humanitarians Disappointed as Travel Ban to North Korea is Extended

The U.S. Department of State extended the travel ban to North Korea for the fifth consecutive year. Since September 1, 2017 U.S. passports have been invalid for traveling to North Korea after Otto Warmbier’s tragic coma and subsequent death. Only select individuals from the U.S. including reporters and humanitarian workers have been allowed to apply for Special Validation Passports to visit the country. These Special Validation Passport applications are issued on a limited basis and greatly impede humanitarian work on the ground.

Current legislation in Congress entitled “Enhancing Humanitarian Assistance to North Korea Act” (H.R. 1504/S. 690) proposes to expedite governmental approvals for humanitarian workers working in North Korea, but the bill has yet to be passed. Korea Peace Now! and Women Cross the DMZ also organized campaigns advocating to end the travel ban. Unfortunately, these efforts did not prevent the State Department from extending the ban for one more year.

The extension of the travel ban comes at a critical time. Along with the whole world, the pandemic has complicated an already difficult situation in North Korea. With national borders closed, much-needed medical and humanitarian shipments are unable to reach the most vulnerable in country. Lifting the travel ban would have allowed humanitarian organizations, such as Ignis Community, to carry out critical, lifesaving work.

Although the Biden Administration has signaled that they are ready to meet, to talk anytime and anyplace with North Korea, North Korea has yet to take them up on this offer. Actions prove to speak louder than words. Joint military drills between the U.S. and South Korea continue to display military intimidation. Likewise, extending the travel ban, and thereby restricting U.S. citizens from engaging with North Koreans, sends a clear message to North Korea that the U.S. has no intention of normalizing international relations.

Dr. Kee Park, an experienced neurosurgeon who has worked in North Korea and a lecturer at Harvard University’s school of Global Health, emphasized that, “There’s a sense of urgency to this issue. This is not something that will work itself out over time because people’s lives are at stake.”

The extension of the travel ban also comes days after the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that North Korea appears to be restarting plutonium production. North Korea officially declared a halt to its nuclear program after agreements made at the Singapore Summit in 2018. They also returned U.S. solider remains from the Korean War and released all three U.S. detainees, tangibly moving towards a more amicable relationship with the U.S.

Unfortunately, the U.S. did not respond in kind. Although the U.S. promised economic investments and improved international relations, nothing was done in response to North Korea’s initial steps towards peace. Instead, the U.S. demanded complete denuclearization from North Korea by maintaining maximum pressure with hardline sanctions and a complete travel ban to North Korea. This all-or-nothing approach proved to be disastrous as the following Summit in Hanoi ended abruptly before talks really even began.

Negotiations were cut short due to decades of conflict and broken promises, which has prevented both North Korea and the U.S. from trusting each other. Unfortunately, in order for either country to follow through with their promises, they must first build trust. Building trust is only possible when small steps are taken, that is promises are kept and fulfilled at the most basic of levels. Both parties need to invest in spending time with one another, learning to understand one another, and over time establish a relationship that assumes the fulfillment of promises and not vice versa.

But when the U.S. demands everything without even giving one single incentive, North Korea has no reason to trust them. Hypothetically, if North Korea did dismantle their entire nuclear program, what reason would they have to trust that the U.S. would fulfill any of their promises if there is no track record of trustworthiness? At the end of it all, U.S.’s maximum pressure strategy has resulted in North Korea restarting its nuclear program.

As Dan Jasper with AFSC stated, “If the U.S. wants North Korea to come to the table, they must get back to a baseline level of engagement, allowing NGOs to carry out their work unimpeded. This would allow medical and humanitarian aid to reach those who need it the most as well as help ordinary North Koreans and Americans learn more about one another beyond what’s reported in the news. The effectiveness of soft diplomacy in this way should not be under-estimated. In the midst of a global pandemic, more than ever before, humanitarian aid workers should not be hampered by red tape, including the necessity to apply for Special Validation Passports.

Ironically, the Biden Administration continues to insist that human rights have to be at the center of any discussion with North Korea. But as long as the travel ban is extended, a wall of red tape persists for humanitarian organizations working on the ground in North Korea. Many humanitarian organizations with more than a decade of experience in North Korea are able and ready to deliver necessary aid. At the end of the day, it is the common people of North Korea who are suffering at the hands of U.S. policy. One tragedy has turned into a multitude of tragedies for countless of people.