North Korea announced Friday the arrest of a US university student for what it called a “hostile act” orchestrated by the American government to undermine the authoritarian nation.
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The U.S. State Department has said it could not confirm the CNN report.
A man who was held by North Korea for almost six months in 2014 says he’s “surprised and disheartened” to learn a fellow southwest OH resident has been detained there.
The United States would release no further information beyond its acknowledgement of the media reports, he said, citing “privacy considerations”.
Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency named the University of Virginia student as Otto Frederick Warmbier and alleges he was visiting as a tourist but plotting to destroy the country’s unity and was caught committing a hostile act against the state.
In language that mirrors past North Korean claims of outside conspiracies, Pyongyang’s state media said the University of Virginia student, who attended high school outside Cincinnati, entered the country under the guise of a tourist and plotted to destroy North Korean unity with “the tacit connivance of the US government and under its manipulation”. The report did not specify when the arrest was actually made or when Warmbier entered the country. North Korea has sometimes listed English-language surnames first.
Gareth Johnson of China-based Young Pioneer Tours confirmed Warmbier was on one of its tours and said he had been detained in North Korea on January 2.
In a show of strength earlier this month, a nuclear-capable US B-52 bomber – flanked by South Korean F-15 fighter jets and US F-16 planes – flew a mission just south of the inter-Korea border.
Pyongyang has in the past used detained US citizens to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
China is under growing pressure from South Korea and the U.S.to use its economic leverage on North Korea to make it abandon its nuclear programs.
“Travel by US citizens to North Korea is not routine, and USA citizens have been subject to arrest and long-term detention for actions that would not be cause for arrest in the United States or other countries”.
Warmbier is the second American now held hostage in North Korea. 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.
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South Korea’s president questioned the role of long-dormant North Korean nuclear disarmament talks, saying Friday that regional powers should meet without the North in the wake its recent nuclear test.
