North Korea says arrested US university student

North Korea announced Friday the arrest of a USA university student for what it said were “hostile” acts orchestrated by the US government.

He had entered North Korea as a tourist with the intention “to destroy the country’s unity”, said KCNA, which added that the USA government had “tolerated and manipulated” him.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s president questioned the role of long-dormant North Korean nuclear disarmament talks, saying Friday that regional powers should meet without the North in the wake its recent nuclear test. The student was identified Warmbier Otto Frederick by KCNA, the Associated Press reported.

A China-based tour company has confirmed that one if its clients has been detained in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

Frederick graduated from Wyoming High School in Cincinnati. Warmbier was on a five-day trip organized by Young Pioneer Tours, but it is unclear what the goal of the trip was.

It says the student allegedly plotted to undermine the North’s system and that has links to the US government. Some foreigners previously arrested have read statements of guilt that they later said were coerced.

But he said that “everything is on the table”, including so-called secondary sanctions, of the type the United States most recently used against Iran, which would target third-party countries doing business with North Korea.

Since Warmbier was reported detained in North Korea, his Facebook page has been deactivated. North Korea has yet to comment on the report, and the U.S. State Department has said it could not confirm it.

In a show of strength earlier this month, a nuclear-capable US B-52 bomber – flanked by South Korean F-15 fighter jets and US F-16 planes – flew a mission just south of the inter-Korea border.

Bae was released in November, 2014, along with fellow American Matthew Miller, after a secret mission to Pyongyang led by United States intelligence chief James Clapper.

However, Beijing’s leverage over Pyongyang is mitigated by its overriding fear of a North Korean collapse and the prospect of a reunified, US-allied Korea directly on its border.

South Korean-born Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim was sentenced last month to hard labour for life, according to state media.