A former U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights issues stressed the need Monday for the United States to ease its longstanding ban on U.S. citizens' travel to North Korea, noting that the prohibition has also prevented Americans from offering humanitarian aid to the reclusive state. In an article released on the website of the Korea Economic Institute of America, Robert King, who served as special envoy for North Korean human rights issues from 2009-2017, said that the U.S. has renewed the travel ban with no public assessment of what a decade of prohibition has accomplished. Washington put the ban in place in September 2017 after North Korea released Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student, following 17 months of detention. Warmbier, who returned home in a vegetative state and died days later, had been imprisoned in the North on charges of anti-state activities. The ban has been extended annually. "The extension of the travel ban comes without any effort to identify whether it has been helpful. Over the last decade, the travel ban has been extended with no indication of improving North