The U.S. Travel Ban on North Korea Hurts The People, Not The Rulers
travel bans aren't characteristic of a free people so why does the U.S. do it?
Hunger is a real problem in North Korea. The country has one of the lowest food consumption rates in the world that naturally results in widespread malnutrition and high rates of childhood stunting.
Sanctions on the country have crippled the supply chains of essential items such as food and medicine. The same sanctions have restricted humanitarian workers, specifically American NGOs and Christian workers, from entering North Korea to administer and provide life saving services and supplies.
The U.S. Department of State said about two years ago, as reported by Column Finch formerly of the Washington Post, to date in 2019 that it decided it would be…
… “lifting travel restrictions on American aid workers and loosening its block on humanitarian supplies destined for the country, according to several diplomats and relief workers.”
But that was two years ago.
Nothing has happened since pre-2017 to help the humane cause of providing life supporting medical services and food to the citizens of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), aka North Korea.
A major obstacle in trying to work with the U.S. State Department is as it appears their staff changes fairly often so when NGOs and Humanitarian workers approach the State Department to discuss amending or lifting the current travel ban, they’re often having to start from square-one with explaining the who, what, when, where and why so the department can not be a roadblock to the how.
It appears to have become a cyclical process producing no progress unfortunately.
These sanctions that prevent humanitarian workers from re-entering the country significantly obstruct attaining the goal of the DPRK becoming the free and open state it will be one day. Restricting humanitarian and Christian workers who have been doing this longer than any single U.S. State Department staff has worked in that department is arguably the most inefficient thing to do if the goal is truly to help the average citizens of the DPRK and keep and grow peace on the Korean Peninsula.
English students from the DPRK
The workers, many of whom have spent the majority of their lives now working towards this end, are America’s best representatives in the DPRK since there is no American embassy there. We, humanitarian and peace workers, are the West’s best representation to this country and when we aren’t allowed to continue our work there, no representation exists.
Sanctions Hurt The People, Not The Rulers
It is a known fact that the current sanctions and travel bans from the U.S. State Department on American citizens to the DPRK don’t hurt the country’s politicians, they hurt the average citizens having devastating impact particularly on the women, children and elderly. The current travel ban on American citizens by the U.S. State Department must be lifted in order to meet dire needs of the people and to make positive, lasting change on the Korean Peninsula that naturally leads towards a peace resolution rather than a violent alternative.
The U.S. State Department implemented the current travel ban on American citizens soon thereafter Otto Warmbier passed away in 2017 after being detained in the DPRK in 2016 for attempting to steal a poster. Warmbier traveled to the DPRK as a tourist with a China based travel company called Young Pioneer Tours who is in the business of guiding expats to unique locations like Iran and the DPRK. But experienced humanitarian workers aren’t synonymous with tourists, respectfully, who likely aren’t trained at all for entering a culture drastically different than their own.
It was a genuine tragedy with what happened with Otto Warmbier. It should not have happened. There is no justifiable excuse for his death.
With this said, his death should not further prevent experienced humanitarian workers with U.S. citizenship from continuing their humane services to people who need them in the DPRK. As most people in the developed world would say and agree, their governments aren’t synonymous with them as citizens. There is a difference between the people and their government as is true for any country and citizenry in the world.
We cannot neglect the needs of the people at the expense of any government interest. The needs of the people must be prioritized above any political agenda for without the people there is no justification for any government as it is dependent on the people and their welfare.
To provide for those in need of aid and assistance is not an endorsement of their belief system.
For many humanitarian workers rather, it is their personal belief systems of valuing all human life as equal to or greater than even to their own. This view enables and compels us to travel beyond the padded rooms of safety and convenience of our developed countries into the unchartered territories of developing countries.
friends in the DPRK making Kimchi
Besides, isn’t restricting citizens from freely traveling what authoritarian countries do?
Why is the U.S. acting like an authoritarian government in this respect?
What you can do:
Contact your senators to inform them of S. 690 The Enhancing North Korea Humanitarian Assistance Act and ask for them to support it
Contact your congressmen to inform them of H.R.1504 also known as The Enhancing North Korea Humanitarian Assistance Act to ask them to support it
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