“We are aware of media reports that a USA citizen was detained in North Korea”, State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said in a statement.
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Ohio Gov. John Kasich, campaigning in New Hampshire as a Republican presidential candidate, called the arrest “inexcusable”.
American citizen Otto Frederick Warmbier, a 21-year-old university student, has been arrested in North Korea after allegedly perpetrating “a hostile act against” the East Asian country.
A University of Virginia student is at the center of an worldwide dispute.
A China-based travel agency said Saturday that Warmbier was being held over an unspecified incident at his hotel before he was scheduled to board a flight for Beijing.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
“Our office is in contact with the State Department and the family, and we will do everything we can to help bring him home safely”, Jennifer Donohue, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen.
He has been charged by the country for plotting to destroy north korean unity.
Warmbier was detained four days before North Korea conducted what it claimed was a successful test of a hydrogen bomb. Earlier this month, a Korean-American man told CNN in Pyongyang that he was being held by the state for spying.
“They (North Korea) kind of trickle information out, but what’s actually going on can be very different”, said attorney Timothy Tepe of Lebanon, Ohio, adding that he learned that North Korean authorities monitor reports and comments about detainees.
Pyongyang has in the past used detained U.S. citizens to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations. Most are adventure-seekers curious about life behind the last sliver of the iron curtain, and ignore critics who say their dollars prop up a repressive regime.
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Friday offered a “creative” solution to stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme – cut Pyongyang from the equation and make them five-party negotiations instead.
On top of the five-way talks, South Korea’s top diplomat said his government was also considering a “diverse dialogue framework” that could kick-off with a “three-way cooperation body” involving South Korea, the U.S. and China.
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North Korea is holding at least three South Koreans and one Canadian.
