North Korea says arrested USA university student

North Korea’s state-run news agency KCNA on Friday identified the man arrested as a university student from the USA state of Virginia.

Otto Frederick Warmbier, who reportedly entered North Korea on a tourist visit, is accused of carrying out a hostile act against the DPRK, KCNA said, referring to the acronym for the Democratic People’ Republic of North Korea.

North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners, and the US and Canadian governments advise against travel there.

Earlier this month, CNN reported that North Korea had detained another USA citizen on suspicion of spying.

Several Americans have been held in North Korea in recent years, including the South Korean-born missionary Kenneth Bae, who was similarly charged with hostile activities and sentenced in 2013 to 15 years in prison.

A China-based tour company has confirmed that one of its clients has been detained in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

North Korea has previously released or deported US detainees after high-profile Americans visited the country.

The United States and North Korea are in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russian Federation are members of the six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearization, but the negotiations have been suspended for more than seven years.

Bae was released in November, 2014, along with fellow American Matthew Miller, after a secret mission to Pyongyang led by U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper. The offenses he was charged with included harming the dignity of the North’s leadership and trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system, according to the North’s state media.