U of Virginia Student Detained in North Korea

An official at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said it was aware of the reported arrest, Reuters said.

Currently, North Korea is known to be holding three Westerners including Warmbier. North Korea announced his arrest Friday.

“I’m asking the United States or South Korean government to rescue me”, Mr Kim told a CNN correspondent through an interpreter at a hotel in Pyongyang.

Fowle said in 2014 he had left a Bible in a North Korean nightclub in hopes it would reach underground Christians.

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

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican campaigning in New Hampshire as a US presidential candidate, called the arrest “inexcusable”.

Government officials say he committed a “hostile act” which threatened the country’s unity-which apparently are grounds to keep him from returning to his family in America.

Hall said the United States has little leverage with North Korea.

Warmbier was a top student at his high school and was described as a skilled soccer player.

The school district contacted the family but declined comment.

Fowle said on Friday he was “surprised and disheartened” to learn of Warmbier’s detainment. A Dayton-area man was held almost six months in 2014.

The statement came one day after the South Korean head of state proposed resuming the denuclearization talks.

Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency reported Friday that authorities are investigating the student, who it says entered the North as a tourist.

In addition, the MND has released the plan to secure five spy satellites in the early 2020s and conduct the first joint training to adapt the 4D operational concept (detect, disrupt, destroy, defense) to counter North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missiles.

Warmbier’s profiles on social media show that he’s majoring in economics and minoring in global sustainability and that he’s previously traveled to Cuba, Israel and Ireland. 2 after participating in a five-day trip organized by Young Pioneer Tours.

China-based travel agency “Young Pioneer Tours”, which specializes in tours to North Korea, said that Otto Warmbier had been staying at Pyongyang’s Yanggakdo International Hotel and was not with other tourists when the incident occurred.

The group says they are assisting the U.S. State Department closely in this situation. “We’re really trying hard to respect the family’s privacy”, she said.