Originally Posted by
dhuey
Interesting question. I have no desire to visit North Korea, but I am curious to know if the US government can lawfully ban American nationals from visiting the country, or any country. The embargo on Cuba never banned visits by Americans, but it has banned a wide variety of commercial transactions, such as paying for a taxi, meal or lodging (with lots of exceptions).
By "government" do you mean the executive branch, or the government as a whole?
I see no reason why congress couldn't ban it if they wanted to, using their extraterritorial jurisdiction. There are laws banning Americans from traveling abroad for certain purposes (such as child sex tourism), so if those are constitutional, then they should be able to ban it for all purposes.
If you mean the executive branch, then I think they cannot, which is why the Department of State warns against it on their website without explicitly saying it's illegal.
That's my feeling, but who knows, I could be way off.
Originally Posted by
drewguy
The same way it can ban people from any international travel by denying a passport altogether. The ban isn't complete - one can apply for special permission. There might be an argument to make that this process fails the due process requirement of
Aptheker v. Secretary of State but I imagine that the government would have a decent response that it has made available a process for anyone wishing to travel to North Korea to obtain permission to do so, with a fair process for assessing their need and whether it should be approved.
That's an interesting case, but I'm not sure it is relevant here because in that case,
certain individuals were denied
all foreign travel on the basis of their political views. That may violate due process, but it doesn't mean that a ban applying to
all Americans equally would also violate due process.
Of course, as a practical matter, the US can't do much about it. Once they have issued you a passport, it's up to the other country whether or not to accept it. Even if the US started stamping all passports "not valid for travel to North Korea" doesn't mean North Korea has to follow it.
To get back on the topic of this thread, what I would do is wait for 5 years after returning from North Korea before applying for or renewing your GE. The application only asks for countries visited in the last 5 years, so that way you aren't lying.