It said the student has links to the USA government.
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North Korean military posts near the border with South Korea. Kasich said North Korea should either provide evidence of the alleged anti-state activities or release Warmbier.
Otto Frederick Warmbier, 21, of the University of Virginia, was in North Korea for a five-day New Year trip and was detained at Pyongyang airport on January 2 ahead of a flight back to China, said Gareth Johnson of Young Pioneer Tours, which organised the visit. He is majoring in economics with a minor in global sustainability and was on the University of Virginia dean’s list. Wyoming City Schools spokeswoman Susanna Max said Warmbier was the salutatorian of his graduating class in the highly rated public high school. State Department spokesman John Kirby, citing “privacy considerations”, declined to comment beyond acknowledging the reports of Warmbier’s arrest and stressing that the welfare of USA citizens was always a top priority.
The arrest was announced early Friday morning. Some foreigners previously arrested have read statements of guilt they later said were coerced.
A few thousand Westerners visit North Korea each year, and Pyongyang is pushing for more tourists as a way to help its dismal economy.
It comes as the US State Department investigates reports of another US citizen being held by the secretive state.
Ohio’s governor has called North Korea’s detention of a USA university student from OH “inexcusable”.
CNN reported two weeks ago that a man who identified himself as Kim Dong Chul was an American citizen being held on espionage charges.
Another southwest OH native was detained by North Korea in 2014.
The U.S. State Department has said it could not confirm the CNN report.
The Swedish Embassy represents USA interests in North Korea.
Warmbier was detained four days before North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in violation of UN sanctions, which drew condemnation from its neighbours and the United States.
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North Korea’s state-run Central News Agency provided little detail on Warmbier’s arrest, but outline serious allegations nonetheless.
