Trump Signs Bill Imposing Sanctions On Russia, Bans US Citizens From Visiting North Korea

President Donald Trump has signed a bill imposing new sanctions against Russia, a White House official told the CNN.

The bill signed Wednesday also gives U.S Congress new veto power to block Trump from rolling back the sanctions.

The Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the measure in response to various Russian actions like efforts to influence the 2016 election. The package also includes fresh sanctions against Iran and North Korea.

The measure was signed into law after it passed with overwhelming margins in both the House and Senate.

The Senate passed 98-2, it was in the House for more than a month before they included the North Korean sanctions before passing the measure 419-3.

Prior to Wednesday’s signing, Russia President Vladimir Putin told the U.S to reduce their diplomatic staff in his country by 755, as well as seizing two US diplomatic properties.

On Tuesday, U.S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed concerns about the sanctions’ possible effects on the country’s relations with Moscow.

“Neither the president nor I were very happy about Congress passing the measure,” Tillerson told reporters.

“We were clear that we didn’t think it was going to be helpful to our efforts, but that’s the decision they made, they made it in a very overwhelming way. I think the president accepts that.”

The latest developments put U.S.-Russia relations “under considerable stress,” Tillerson added.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker said Congress will only veto an attempt to ease sanctions on Moscow if the White House attempts to remove it.

“I’ve walked the President through the process of how congressional review works,” Corker said. “The administration — knowing that unless it’s way out of bounds — likely they have the flexibility to do what they need to do.”

Meanwhile, the US on Wednesday officially ban its citizens from travelling to North Korea from September 1.

“The Department of State has determined that the serious risk to United States nationals of arrest and long-term detention represents imminent danger to the physical safety of United States nationals travelling to and within the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” read the restriction as it appeared on Wednesday in the US government’s Federal Register.

“All United States passports are declared invalid for travel to, in, or through the DPRK unless specially validated for such travel,” it added.

An exemption was noted for approved humanitarian travel and for journalists in some circumstances. The ban is to remain in effect for one year, unless it is revoked sooner by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The travel ban was first announced last month in the wake of the death of American student Otto Warmbier who fell into a coma after being imprisoned by Pyongyang during a tourist visit.

Warmbier, 22, a student at the University of Virginia, died in June after being held for more than a year on charges of stealing a propaganda poster from a North Korean hotel – and sent home in a mysterious coma that proved fatal.

After his death, President Donald Trump said he was determined to “prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency.”