North Korea said on Friday (January 22) it had detained a U.S. university student for committing a “hostile act” and wanting to “destroy the country’s unity”, the third western citizen known to be held in the isolated state.
The North’s state-run television KRT said the student, Otto Frederick Warmbier, entered North Korea as a tourist and “was caught committing a hostile act against the state”, which it said was “tolerated and manipulated by the U.S. government”.
“Warmbier Otto Frederick, student of Virginia University in the United States, was caught committing a hostile act against DPRK after entering the country as a tourist. He aimed to destroy the country’s unity under the U.S. government’s acquiescence and control,” said KRT news reader.
DPRK is the acronym for the isolated North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
KRT said Warmbier had entered the country with an “aim to destroy the country’s unity”. It did not elaborate.
Warmbier is an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, according to the university’s website. 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 Jan. 2.
A South Korean-born Canadian pastor was arrested in North Korea last year and given a life sentence for subversion. Earlier this month, a Korean-American man told CNN in Pyongyang that he was being held by the state for spying.
In 2014, Pyongyang released three detained Americans. Last October, it freed a South Korean national with a U.S. green card after holding him for six months. (Reuters)