North Korea says it arrests U.S. student for 'hostile act'

North Korea has accused Warmbier of committing a "hostile act" orchestrated by the U.S.

He was detained "while perpetrating a hostile act against the DPRK", it added, without specifying when the arrest was actually made or when Warmbier entered the country.

Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency reported that authorities are investigating the student who it says entered the North as a tourist with a plot to undermine a unity among the North Koreans.

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.

He was apparently in North Korea traveling with a China-based tour group, Young Pioneer Tours.

The 2014 United Nations report concluded that North Korean security chiefs and possibly leader Kim Jong Un should face worldwide justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings. After 140 days of detainment, they were freed after diplomatic intervention from former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who negotiated their release.

China, Pyongyang's main ally, has been calling for a resumption of so-called six-party talks among the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russian Federation aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

"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. It said the student has links to the US government.

Young Pioneers, the tour company that brought him to North Korea, confirmed that Warmbier was on one of its tours for a five-day trip over New Year's. And they will nearly certainly request a high-level envoy from the USA come to North Korea before they agree to release the University of Virginia student. Meanwhile, North Korea refused to accept a copy of a National Assembly resolution denouncing its fourth nuclear test and urging abandonment of its nuclear program, which the Ministry of Unification attempted to pass on through its Panmunjeom liaison channel that afternoon at the National Assembly's request.

"Despite what you may hear, North Korea is probably one of the safest places on Earth to visit". "We can not let ourselves be swayed in the firm principles of our North Korea policy", she said.

Fowle, of Miamisburg, said in 2014 he had left a Bible in a North Korean nightclub in hopes it would reach underground Christians. The communist North has been boycotting the talks since April 2009. Matthew Miller, a tourist who ripped up his visa upon arrival in Pyongyang, and Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary, had both been serving multi-year sentences in North Korean labor camps.

Ten other U.S. citizens were on the tour.

North Korea is now holding two other Westerners, Kim Dong-chul. who they claim is an American citizen, and Canadian Reverend Lim Hyeon-soo.

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