North Korea says arrested US university student

South Korea is undoubtedly a tough place for those North Koreans who do risk the journey – an official report out of the South last month showed that life became even harder the longer refugees stayed, suggesting disadvantages in the job market.

North Korea says it has arrested a USA student accused of committing a “hostile act” against the state.

He flies to Beijing later Wednesday for talks on North Korea.

Although the circumstances surrounding his arrest and detention are hazy at the moment, Wambier happens to be the third U.S. citizen held in North Korea, a country that has no diplomatic ties with the United States.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se said excluding North Korea from the dialogue process would serve as a powerful signal of the worldwide community’s anger and frustration.

Pyongyang has called its bomb test a necessary measure for self-defense and repeated its desire for the U.S.to offer a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War.

South Korea’s controversial National Security Law criminalizes “anti-state” acts and forbids citizens from supporting the North in any context.

The planned talks among them will be the second of their kind, following a meeting held in Honolulu in July 2014 on the sidelines of the U.S.-hosted Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercises off Hawaii.

“Effective sanctions are needed against North Korea”, Michael Geier, German Ambassador to S. Korea, said, asking what kind of efforts are now being made by the South Korean parliament.

Foreign tourists visit a school in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sep.

The announcement means the South’s military operations center, the Korea Theater Missile Operation Cell, or KTMO Cell, will be linked to the U.S. TMO-CELL system via Link 16, a military tactical data exchange network already used between the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The depths of winter have hit North Korea, with temperatures dropping lower than past year.

That in contravention of UN Security Council resolutions, and Seoul urged China to do its part to rein in its isolated neighbour.