BEIJING (AP) – A handful of Americans left Pyongyang on Thursday on a flight to Beijing, a day before the start of a U.S. ban on American citizens going to North Korea.
Among those on the flight from the North Korean capital were aid workers who hoped to be allowed to return to continue humanitarian work.
The Trump administration announced in July that it was barring American citizens from traveling to North Korea from Sept. 1 over concerns about detentions of Americans who travel there. Earlier this year, U.S. citizen Otto Warmbier was sent home in a coma and later died after spending more than a year in North Korean detention.
Overall, though nearly all Americans who have gone to North Korea have left without incident, at least 16 have been detained in the last decade, American officials say.
The ban also goes into effect amid heightened U.S. concern about Pyongyang’s recent advancements in its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.