UVA Student Being Held by North Korean Authorities

We are also assisting the U.S Department of State closely with regards to the situation.

In its policy report that day, the Ministry of National Defense said it planned to set up a channel this year for real-time sharing of intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs with United States military authorities – raising the possibility that real-time intelligence sharing between South Korea and the USA could happen within the year. At that time, former North Korean President Kim Jong Il, the father of current leader Kim Jong Un, still held power.

The State Department did not give further details on the matter due to issues of privacy.

Warmbier graduated from Wyoming High School, in suburban Cincinnati, as salutatorian in 2013, said Susanna Max, spokesperson for Wyoming City Schools, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. A Theta Chi fraternity brother, Miles Kirwin, added, “He’s an incredible guy”. Warmbier was detained as he was leaving the country.

North Korea’s state media said the University of Virginia student entered the country under the guise of a tourist and plotted against North Korean unity with “the tacit connivance of the USA government and under its manipulation”.

“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.

U.Va.’s student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, reported that Warmbier is a third-year student, an Echols scholar and a member of Theta Chi Fraternity.

Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a presidential candidate, has said North Korea should provide evidence against Warmbier or let him go. Possession of religious publications or anti-North Korean propaganda is considered grounds for arrest.

He said the 2014 detainee, Jeffrey Fowle, is “doing wonderful” and seems to have adjusted well to life at his home near Dayton.

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.

If the NoKos hold true to form, they will keep Mr. Warmbier locked up for several months before putting him on trial. He was arrested on suspicion that he was conducting an investigation of North Korean prison camps.

North Korea has previously released or deported USA detainees after high-profile Americans visited the country. The then-25-year-old didn’t believe Western media reports that North Korea was as hostile as it was made out to be, so he traveled to the Hermit Kingdom from China with the intention to stay indefinitely.

The US government chooses such emissaries carefully.

“American citizens must be allowed to travel overseas without the risk of being arrested arbitrarily and then held hostage for purposes of ransom, the forced reopening of diplomatic negotiations or acts created to antagonize the United States”, he wrote.

As Guttridge waited for Warmbier to come out of the room, she instructed the rest of her tour group to board the North Korean Air Koryo flight bound for Beijing.