North Korea says it has arrested US university student

North Korea has detained a USA college student who was traveling in the country as a tourist, charging him with committing an unspecified “hostile act” against the reclusive, nuclear-armed state and threatening the “unity” of its people, official media said on Friday.

The student has been named by North Korea’s state-run news agency, KCNA (Korean Central News Agency) as Otto Frederick Warmbier.

The U.S. State Department, in a statement, said it was aware of reports that a U.S. citizen had been detained in North Korea but gave no other details, citing privacy concerns.

North Korea also regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending “spies” to overthrow its government to enable the U.S.-backed South Korean government to control the entire Korean Peninsula.

A friend and former high-school classmate of Warmbier, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters: “Otto is a wonderful, warm person who should never have to go through anything like this”.

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

“The government will sternly respond to North Korea’s provocation while seeking to take a principled approach when it comes to inter-Korean dialogue”, he added.

The group says they are assisting the U.S. State Department closely in this situation. It declined to discuss the issue further or confirm whether the US was consulting with Sweden, which handles USA consular issues in North Korea because Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations.

North Korean officials recently allowed CNN to interview another American prisoner.

Warmbier is a third-year student studying commerce at the University of Virginia, according to The Cavalier Daily, the school’s student newspaper.

The comments came hours after South Korean President Park Geun-hye proposed that the five countries hold a meeting to press Pyongyang to abandon nuclear programs as she questioned the effectiveness of the six-nation nuclear talks.

With North Korea’s long history of detaining foreigners, the U.S State Department has strongly advised Americans against travelling to North Korea.

Ohio’s governor has called North Korea’s detention of a US university student from OH “inexcusable”.