03 August, 2017
"Persons now in North Korea on a United States passport should depart North Korea before the travel restriction enters into effect on Friday, September 1, 2017", the department said in a statement. "We do not see a regime change". "That's why early on we identified it as a very urgent matter, and the North Koreans have certainly proven the urgency of that to us", he said.
The US has previously advised Americans not to travel to North Korea.
North Korea has vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and USA officials said the latest test had shown it may now be able to reach most of the country.
USA nationals who are now in North Korea should leave the country before September 1, the department later said in a press release.
But he sought to reassure the isolated regime that it does not need a nuclear arsenal to defend itself from a USA attack. We are not your enemy. While speaking at the Department of State press conference stressed that the threat posed by Pyongyang's latest intercontinental ballistic missile was not acceptable.
The ban comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea, which has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US.
"We do not seek a regime change, we do not seek a collapse of the regime, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th Parallel", Tillerson said.
But here too, Tillerson was more diplomatic.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, an important member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said a military response to Pyongyang's weapons program is "inevitable if North Korea continues". "And we hope that at some point they will begin to understand that". "Only the North Koreans are to blame for this situation, but we do believe China has a special and unique relationship, because of this significant economic activity, to influence the North Korean regime in ways that no one else can". What's been said before: Ambassador Nikki Haley, the USA representative to the United Nations, said the "time for talk is over" after the Friday missile test, though she was referring to the UN Security Council rather than direct talks involving the hermit state.
In a separate development, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said that Mr Trump told him that there would be a war between the two countries if Pyongyang continued with its aim to develop a missile programme with the USA in its range.
Pyongyang claimed that its latest missile test could hit the USA west coast and beyond.
