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Do I need a visa for North Korea from United States?

Visa required

Travelling to North Korea on a United States passport, you need a visa, arranged before you travel.

North Korea requires a visa for any visit, but for US passport holders the bigger obstacle sits on the American side. Since 2017 the State Department has invalidated ordinary US passports for travel to, in, or through North Korea, and that restriction has been renewed every year since, most recently through August 2027.

Getting in legally means first getting a special validation passport from the State Department, granted only in narrow cases such as journalism or specific humanitarian work, not ordinary tourism. Because of this, mainstream tour operators that run North Korea trips will not book travelers on standard US passports at all.

All passports for North Korea·All destinations for a United States passport