by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 5:32 PM ET, Mon August 28, 2017
With a US travel ban to North Korea taking effect on September 1, Americans are scurrying to visit the country, undeterred by looming threats of arrest or imprisonment in the totalitarian state.
One last group of American travelers entered the country this weekend, according to CNN.
"With the upcoming travel ban I felt like it was now or never," Virginia resident Nicholas Burkhead told a CNN reporter who was in North Korea.
The US ban comes about a month after the death of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old college student from Ohio imprisoned for nearly a year and a half in North Korea. When he was eventually returned to his parents, Warmbier was in a coma. He never recovered.
In a statement posted on its website, the State Department said the ban is being issued due to the serious and mounting risk of arrest and long-term detention of U.S. citizens. At least 16 U.S. citizens have been detained in North Korea in the past ten years.
While there may be some exceptions to the ban at the department's discretion, such as for journalists, the country will soon be off limits for the average traveler.
[READMORE]READ MORE: It's a Trap! North Korea Woos Tourists[/READMORE]
"U.S. passports will be invalid for travel to, through and in North Korea, and individuals will be required to obtain a passport with a special validation in order to travel to or within North Korea," said Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman.
American tourism to North Korea had been continuing, despite the latest round of tensions between the two countries, triggered by recent North Korean missile launches and the escalating war of words between the country's leader Kim Jong-un and President Trump.
Eight Americans were onboard a flight this weekend to North Korea. They are among the last to be allowed in on tourist visas before the ban is set to begin, CNN reported.
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