The United States will prohibit entry of citizens from North Korea to the US as part of a sweeping new travel ban that also slaps restrictions on Iran, Chad, Libya, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen and Somalia, the Trump administration said in a statement on Sunday.

The addition of North Korea and Venezuela broadens the restrictions from the original, mostly Muslim-majority list.

It also removes Sudan, one of the countries in the original ban, leaving eight nations with complete or partial blocks on travel to the US.

The new restrictions, slated to go into effect on 18 October, resulted from a review after President Donald Trump’s original travel bans were challenged in court.

“North Korea does not cooperate with the United States government in any respect and fails to satisfy all information-sharing requirements,” the statement said.

Full travel bans were placed on nationals from North Korea and Chad, while the restrictions for Venezuela were limited to officials from a long list of government agencies and their families.

An administration official briefing reporters on a conference call acknowledged that the number of North Koreans traveling to the US now was very low.

[Source: Middle East Monitor]