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takyon writes:

If potentially being arrested and sentenced to years of hard labor wasn't a sufficient deterrent to visiting North Korea, now you have another reason not to go:

If an event is branded as annual but it only happens once, can it still be called annual? This is the case for Pyongyang's "annual" Taedonggang Beer Festival, the second of which was slated to take place during the month of August.

China-based tour company Koryo Tours, which is among the go-to tour groups organizing trips into North Korea, writes on its blog that it was "informed" North Korean organizers have canceled the event.

[...] According to Koryo, last year's event was a good opportunity to try some local brews and mingle with locals. A menu from the 2016 fest shows several types of draft beers, fried chicken and mutton on a stick available for purchase. North Korean alcohol is a curiosity for many connoisseurs around the globe, especially given its announcement last year that its scientists have invented "hangover-free booze."

North Korea has recently launched a ballistic missile thought by some to be capable of reaching Alaska, Hawaii, and possibly the west coast. Otto Warmbier, an American student who was arrested while on tour in North Korea, died on June 19th after being released on humanitarian grounds. The U.S. Congress will impose new sanctions on North Korea and the U.S. State Department has authorized a Geographical Travel Restriction will forbid Americans from visiting North Korea. The travel ban will go into effect in late August.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff has said that the use of military force against North Korea is "not unimaginable" and hinted that it could happen within a few months.

Hawaii's Emergency Management Agency has released a guide on how to respond to a nuclear attack.

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