North Korea detains University of Virginia student

The state-run agency, KCNA, said the student, Otto Frederick Warmbier, entered North Korea as a tourist but “with a goal to wreck the foundation of state unity … under the manipulation of the usa government”.

Gareth Johnson of Young Pioneer Tours, which organized the visit, said the company was in contact with Warmbier’s family and USA officials.

Such talks would exclude Pyongyang and would be another effort to ramp up pressure in the push for sanctions following the North’s latest nuclear test President Park Geun-hye directed administrative agencies on January 22 to pursue a “five-party talks” framework without North Korea to resolve the issue of the country’s nuclear program. Wyoming City Schools spokesman Susanna Max said Warmbier was the salutatorian of his graduating class in the highly rated public high school.

The arrest was announced early Friday morning.

The U.S. Embassy in Seoul said it was aware of the report.

North Korea is holding at least three other South Koreans and one Canadian.

The North quit the dialogue process in 2009, ostensibly to pro-test sanctions imposed after a long-range rocket test. The following month it conducted its second nuclear test.

Hall helped negotiate the release of West Carrollton resident Jeffrey Fowle, who flew aboard a USA government jet to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base after he was released in October 2014.

UVA’s student directory has an Otto Frederick Warmbier listed as an undergraduate commerce student.

It says the student allegedly plotted to undermine North Korea’s system and has links to the U.S. government. “If you’re caught with one of those pictures, it’s literally a foreign agent committing espionage against the DPRK”, he says. Last year, North Korea released two American detainees after a secret mission to the North by James Clapper, the top US intelligence official.

While the vast majority of tourists to North Korea are from China, roughly 6,000 Westerners visit the country annually.

Western travelers who have made the trip say visiting North Korea feels freaky, but not necessarily treacherous.

“They (North Korea) kind of trickle information out, but what’s actually going on can be very different”, said attorney Timothy Tepe of Lebanon, Ohio, adding that he learned that North Korean authorities monitor reports and comments about detainees.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Five-party talks have been pursued several times by South Korea, the U.S., and Japan since the six-party talks first began in 2003, but never materialized because of China and Russia’s objections.