Trump Adds Venezuela and North Korea to Travel Ban

In the case of Venezuela, the new decree is aimed at "certain Venezuelan government officials and their immediate family members," according to the White House press office.

The new directive prevents Venezuelan officials involved in state security, law enforcement and migration functions from entering the United States. Immediate family members' ability to enter the U.S. as nonimmigrants on business, tourist and tourist/business visas will also be suspended.

The proclamation names ministries and state bodies involved in "screening and vetting procedures," including the Ministry of the Popular Power for Interior, Justice and Peace; the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Immigration; the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigation Service Corps; the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service; and the Ministry of the Popular Power for Foreign Relations.

In the case of North Korea, all foreign nationals from the country are barred from entering the United States.

The sweeping new travel ban will also slap restrictions on ran, Chad, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia, the Trump administration said on Sunday.

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

Iraq was dropped from a revised list due to ongoing military collaboration with the U.S. against the Islamic State group, but the new order does recommend that Iraqis be subject to "additional scrutiny" to determine the danger they may pose to U.S. "national security."

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

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

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

"Making America Safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet," Trump said in a tweet shortly after the announcement was made.