North Korea says US university student arrested

Young Pioneer Tours, the Beijing-based outfit that the young man went there with, claims on its website that, “Despite what you may hear, North Korea is probably one of the safest places on Earth to visit”.

“We can confirm that the reports that one of our clients is being detained in Pyongyang are true”.

The Swedish Embassy represents United States interests in North Korea.

It comes as the US State Department investigates reports of another US citizen being held by the secretive state.

The group says they are assisting the U.S. State Department closely in this situation.

Warmbier is a third-year Commerce student at the University of Virginia, according toThe Cavalier Daily, the school newspaper.

North Korea’s state-run Central News Agency provided little detail on Warmbier’s arrest, but outline serious allegations nonetheless.

North Korea announced on Friday it has arrested a student from the US who allegedly committed “hostile acts” against the state. At this time it remains unclear what steps will be taken to secure both Warmbier’s and Chul’s releases.

The six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, began in 2003 as an effort to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programme in exchange for aid.

Ohio’s governor is urging President Barack Obama’s administration to push North Korea to release a USA university student who is being held there.

North Korea is now holding a 60-year-old Canadian pastor, who was last month sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour on sedition charges.

Richardson, a former New Mexico congressman and governor, said the North Koreans may initially ask for some humanitarian assistance, such as shipments of rice or other food.

During the trial, it emerged that Miller’s “hostile act” was his plan to become intentionally imprisoned in North Korea to be a first-hand witness of human rights conditions there.

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

“I’m asking the US or South Korean government to rescue me”, Kim said during an interview at a hotel in the North Korean capital.

South Korea’s pointman on inter-Korean affairs made it clear Friday the government is not considering shutting down a joint industrial complex in North Korea or withdraw South Koreans from there despite the North’s nuclear test.