Visa requirements for United States citizens traveling to North Korea

ℹ️Important Notes & Requirements

• ❖U.S. passports holders must obtain a special passport validation from the U.S. federal government before travel. Such validations are only ever issued if travel is in the interests of US national security. United States citizens require a visa when traveling to North Korea; as there is no North Korean diplomatic mission in the United States, US citizens must obtain a visa from a diplomatic mission in a third country. U.S. secretary of state Rex Tillerson authorized a ban on American travel to North Korea that went into effect in August 2017, following the death of Otto Warmbier, a US student who was detained in North Korea and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. The U.S. government advises its citizens not to visit North Korea for any reason due to the continuing serious risk of arrest, long-term detention, and the threat of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals.