The United States is banning its citizens from traveling to North Korea starting next month.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Friday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson authorized a total travel restriction to block Americans from visiting the North.

The ban will be announced in the Federal Register next week and take effect 30 days after the publication of the notice. 

However, special case trips, including humanitarian ones, will be granted exceptionally by obtaining a passport with special validation.

The move comes after the death of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, who died last month after returning from the North in a coma following a 17-month detainment.

The travel ban is also considered part of efforts to further pressure the regime by dealing a blow to the North's cash cow tourism sector, possibly leading other Western nations to follow suit.

Some in the U.S. believe trips to North Korea by foreigners serve to fund the Kim Jong-un regime's nuclear and missile development.

The State Department has issued regular travel alerts on North Korea but began mulling a full travel ban since the death of Warmbier.

The U.S. Congress is also pushing to prohibit American travels to the North for the next five years.

BBC reported on Friday that Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours, which both operate in North Korea, had been told about the upcoming ban by the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, on behalf of Washington.

Warmbier had traveled to the North with the Young Pioneer Tours agency.

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