North Korean flag
North Korean flagReuters

North Korea said on Friday its doors are still open to American tourists, despite Washington banning its citizens from travelling there following the death of a U.S. student who had been jailed in the country.

On Wednesday, the State Department announced that a ban on travel by U.S. passport holders to North Korea will take effect on September 1.

The ban came a month after the U.S. government said it would bar Americans from traveling to North Korea due to the risk of "long-term detention" there.

It was announced following the death of American student Otto Warmbier, who passed away last month after being held prisoner in North Korea for 17 months.

Warmbier suffered severe brain damage while in North Korean captivity. He was returned home to his parents while in a coma, where he later died.

A spokesman for the North's foreign ministry on Friday said Americans were still welcome.

"We will always leave our door wide open to any U.S. citizen who would like to visit our country out of good will," he said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency and quoted by AFP.

"There isn't any reason for the foreigners to feel threat to their safety in the DPRK which has the most stable and strong state system," he added, using the acronym for North Korea's official name.

A few Americans have faced "due punishments in accordance with the laws of the DPRK" for committing crimes against the state, said the official.

The ban also comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and North Korea, which has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States.

North Korea last Friday test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), for the second time in less than a month.

On Monday, two American officials assessed, based on last week’s test, that North Korea's missiles may now be able to reach most of the continental United States.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)