The United States had put travel restrictions on North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong while he was in New York for U.N. meetings, after the communist nation conducted a banned test of a submarine ballistic missile, an official said Monday.

Since Saturday's missile test, Ri was allowed to travel only to four places -- the U.N. headquarters, his hotel, the North's mission to the U.N., and the airport, State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a regular press briefing.

"It was a decision that we made in the wake of the weekend's missile tests," he said.

The restrictions were applied only to Ri's delegation, not the North's U.N. diplomats, he said.

Ri visited New York from Wednesday to Sunday to attend U.N. meetings. The trip drew keen media attention as it marked Ri's first since tensions spiked following the North's fourth nuclear test in January, its long-range rocket launch in February and the adoption of a new U.N. sanctions resolution last month.

During the trip, he held a rare media interview where he proposed to put a moratorium on nuclear tests if the U.S. suspends annual joint military exercises with South Korea, which the North has long denounced as a rehearsal for invasion.

But U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the proposal. (Yonhap)