Since 2017, U.S. citizens have been prohibited from traveling to North Korea. The Trump administration enacted the ban after the death of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier. While his death was a tragedy, the travel restriction has caused more harm than good by preventing Korean Americans from visiting their family members, hindering humanitarian aid organizations from delivering critical assistance, and stopping civil society groups and individuals, including peace activists, from engaging in meaningful cultural and educational exchanges that foster trust and understanding and create important openings for diplomacy.

Despite his campaign promise “to reunite Korean Americans separated from loved ones in North Korea for decades,” President Biden has renewed the State Department’s travel ban on North Korea every year since he has been in office, renewing one of the most draconian policies from the Trump administration.

While U.S. citizens can still use their passports to visit some countries with travel restrictions, such as Cuba and Iran, no U.S. passport is valid for travel to North Korea. Instead, U.S. citizens must apply for a totally separate “special validation passport.” The State Department has unfettered discretion as to whether it grants this passport, and does so only in exceedingly exceptional circumstances. This has prolonged the heartbreaking legacies of the unresolved Korean War — more than seven decades of separated Korean families. With the deadline for the renewal of the travel ban coming up at the end of August, we call on President Biden to finally end this cruel policy to allow U.S. citizens to once again travel freely to North Korea.