North Korea says it is holding U.S. university student for ‘hostile act’
On February 2, 2016 In World
According to the KCNA report, Warmbier entered the country as a tourist with the intent of destroying the country’s unity.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei called Friday for the “relevant parties” to “restart the six-party talks at an early date”, in a thinly veiled rejection of Park’s offer.
A few thousand Westerners visit North Korea each year, and Pyongyang is pushing for more tourists as a way to help its dismal economy.
“We have been in contact with the State Department regarding Mr. Warmbier and plan to closely monitor the situation”, Christyn Lansing, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen.
The State Department advises all US citizens not to travel to North Korea. Critics say such trips have provided diplomatic credibility to the North.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report that the student, whom it identified as Warmbier Otto Frederick, was “arrested while perpetrating a hostile act”, but it didn’t explain the nature of the act.
The U.S. and Canada advises their citizens against traveling to North Korea. Pyongyang’s latest test triggered a flurry of diplomatic activity between the five non-North Korean members of the defunct talks process, with the US, Japan and South Korea urging China to take the lead in imposing stronger sanctions on its maverick neighbor.
“It would be effective in the North Korean nuclear issue if the participating countries in the six-way talks, excluding North Korea, put pressure on North Korea”, a senior presidential official said. The University of Virginia’s online student directory lists Otto Frederick Warmbier as an undergraduate commerce student.
Warmbier, described as a skilled a soccer player, was the salutatorian in his high school class in 2013, Wyoming City Schools spokeswoman Susanna Max said Friday.
News of the University of Virginia student’s detention came at a time of heightened tension between North Korea and the United States, which has been working with its allies in the region to increase global sanctions against the country over the government’s claims to have carried out its fourth nuclear test this month.
On top of the five-way talks, South Korea’s top diplomat said his government was also considering a “diverse dialogue framework” that could kick-off with a “three-way cooperation body” involving South Korea, the United States and China.
Information for this article was contributed by Dan Sewell, Libby Quaid and Matthew Pennington of The Associated Press.
