Director of U.S. National Intelligence James Clapper speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York March 2, 2015. 
 
 WASHINGTON U.S. spy chief James Clapper said that when he made a secret visit to North Korea in November to bring home two jailed Americans he was first given a 12-course banquet and then later told by his hosts that his security could not be guaranteed. 
 
 Clapper gave details of his trip, made at the behest of President Barack Obama, for the first time during a forum on Monday at the Council on Foreign relations. 
 
 He said that after his arrival in the isolated country's capital, a North Korean four-star general hosted what Clapper called a "marvelous" 12-course meal at a restaurant above a bowling alley. 
 
 The next day, Clapper said, a representative of the state security ministry came to his guest house and told him the government no longer considered him a presidential envoy and could not guarantee his security and that of his party. 
 
 Clapper said they packed their bags and were taken to a room at a Pyongyang hotel where a delegation of Korean officials, led by state prosecutors, was waiting with the Americans, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, who were still dressed in prison uniforms. 
 
 After a denunciation of the prisoners was read out, the officials walked out of the room, leaving the Americans in the company of Clapper and his aides. The freed Americans changed clothes, and the party headed for the airport for a flight home. 
 
 Bae and Miller returned to a warm welcome in the United States on Nov. 8. 
 
 Bae, 46, a Korean-American missionary from Lynnwood north of Seattle, was arrested in North Korea in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for crimes against the state. Miller, in his mid-20s, was reportedly convicted on an espionage charge and in custody since last April, serving a six-year hard labor sentence. 
 
 North Korea is under tough international sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs and was severely criticized for its human rights abuses in a United Nations report last year. 
 
 (Reporting by David Storey; Editing by Ken Wills) ||||| TOKYO (AP) — North Korea has lifted severe restrictions on foreign travel it imposed last year to keep the Ebola virus from crossing its borders. 
 
 The already isolated country virtually closed its borders to foreigners last October, halting all non-essential visas and requiring those few foreigners allowed in to undergo three weeks of quarantine. The rules applied to diplomats, NGO workers and even senior North Korean officials returning from overseas trips. 
 
 One tour company that takes tourists into North Korea, Uri Tours, said on its website Tuesday that it had been told by the country's national airline that the ban had been lifted. 
 
 "We have been informed by Air Koryo that North Korea's borders are now open for travel and the four-month long Ebola travel ban was lifted as of Monday," Uri Tours said. 
 
 Officials in Pyongyang said the restrictions and quarantines would continue for visitors from Ebola-affected countries in Africa and those countries that have borders with them. 
 
 North Korean media had suggested the Ebola virus was created by the U.S. military for use as a biological weapon. 
 
 North Korea's decision to set the restrictions despite the lack of any real threat — there have been no Ebola cases in Asia and North Korea has very little exchange with the African countries that have been most impacted — has been a disaster for foreign travel agencies that specialize in bringing tourists to the North. 
 
 A statement from North Korea's state emergency quarantine committee obtained by The AP on Tuesday said tourists from Ebola-hit countries such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and their neighboring countries would still be placed in the three-week quarantine, while tourists from other countries would be able to enter with routine medical checks. 
 
 North Korea had been pushing tourism in hopes of gaining much-needed foreign currency and has over the past few years tried to improve its tourism infrastructure. Last year, it opened its first luxury ski resort and it has announced the establishment of a number of special tourism zones across the country. It is mainly targeting tourists from China, but an increasing number of tourists are coming from the West as well. 
 
 "They have confirmed to me that the borders are now open and everything is back to normal," Andrea Lee, the New Jersey-based Uri Tours' CEO, said in an email. "As we need about two weeks to process visas, we're planning to start tours again from the middle of March." 
 
 But the lifting of the restrictions appears to come too late for one of the year's biggest tourist events. 
 
 Officials have already announced that foreigners will not be able to participate in the Pyongyang marathon next month, although they might have time to reverse that decision. The marathon was opened to foreign recreational runners for the first time last year and was a big success. Travel agents said they expected hundreds of runners from abroad to join this year, but had to cancel their bookings at the last minute. 
 
 Uri Tours said it is waiting for more information to see what the lifting of the ban means for the marathon. 
 
 North Korea has also indicated that it will not hold its popular Arirang mass games extravaganza this year. The mass games are another big tourist attraction.
– The North Koreans are generous but perplexing hosts, according to National Intelligence Director James Clapper. According to Reuters, the spy chief says that during his secret mission to Pyongyang last November to bring two Americans home, a general treated him to a "marvelous" 12-course banquet at a restaurant that sat over a bowling alley—but the next day, officials told him that he was no longer considered a presidential envoy and his group's safety could no longer be guaranteed. Clapper says he was then taken to a hotel where Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller were handed over before the group headed to the airport. For those wishing to sample North Korean hospitality, Pyongyang says it has now lifted tough travel restrictions brought in over fears of Ebola, the AP reports.