According to KCNA, North Korea’s official news agency, Wambier was arrested as a tourist after he “was caught committing a hostile act against the state”, an act that must have been “tolerated and manipulated by the USA government”.
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North Korea said Friday that it had arrested a American student from the University of Virginia for allegedly “perpetrating a hostile act” against the regime.
A representative of the company told Reuters that it is working with the U.S. State Department, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang (which carries out a number of U.S. consular services in North Korea) to resolve the situation.
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 U.S. citizens was always a top priority.
Young Pioneer Tours is based in China and specializes in trips to North Korea.
European Union ambassadors to South Korea and South Korean lawmakers unanimously condemned North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Thursday, calling for stronger sanctions by the U.N. Security Council. “Tourism is very welcomed in North Korea, thus tourists are cherished and well taken care of”.
Also in 2014, Pyongyang released three detained Americans.
North Korea occasionally uses the detention of foreigners as a way of applying pressure on its opponents.
“The problem is that the U.S. has so little economic engagement with North Korea of any kind that it’s hard to identify what we can do that would have a real impact”, said Frank Jannuzi, president of the Mansfield Foundation, which promotes U.S.-Asia relations. Pyongyang has called its bomb test a necessary measure for self-defense and repeated its desire for the U.S.to offer a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War.
North Korean soldiers watch south at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone separating North Korea from South Korea, Sept 11, 2013.
The state department strongly advises Americans against travelling to North Korea. He is the first senior USA official to go to China since Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test on January 6.
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“Relevant parties, although it is not an easy matter, should find out various and creative approaches such as trying five-party talks excluding North Korea”, Park said.
