President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation imposing strict new restrictions on travelers from North Korea to the United States as part of a sweeping new travel ban that also slaps restrictions on people from Iran, Chad, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia.
The new restrictions, slated to go into effect Oct. 18, resulted from a review after President Donald Trump's original travel bans were challenged in court.
It blocked citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries as well as immigrants from around the world, and came under fierce protest. Trump's first two measures were blocked in court, but the Supreme Court in June allowed the second one to go into effect with a caveat: Citizens who have a "credible claim of bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States" are allowed to enter the country.
The restrictions on Venezuela target the country’s leadership and their family members. The pre-existing ban expires Sunday and bans citizens who lack a "credible claim of bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States" from entering the country.
"These restrictions are necessary and conditions-based, not time-based," a senior administration official said, the Washington Post reported.
"The restrictions either previously or now were never, ever ever based on race, religion or creed," one senior administration official told the Post. "Those governments are simply not compliant with our basic security requirements."
The addition of North Korea and Venezuela broadens the restrictions from the original, mostly Muslim-majority list.
"North Korea does not cooperate with the United States government in any respect and fails to satisfy all information-sharing requirements," the proclamation said.
An administration official, briefing reporters on a conference call, acknowledged that the number of North Koreans traveling to the United States now was very low.
Trump last week called for a "tougher" ban after a bomb partially exploded on a London subway.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.