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 Otto Frederick Warmbier, 21, of the University of Virginia, was in
North Korea for a five-day New Year trip and was detained at
Pyongyang airport on Jan. 2 ahead of a flight back to China, said
Gareth Johnson of Young Pioneer Tours, which organized the visit.
According to the North's official KCNA news agency, Warmbier entered
North Korea as a tourist and "was caught committing a hostile act
against the state", which it said was "tolerated and manipulated by
the U.S. government".
An official at the U.S. embassy in the South Korean capital Seoul
said it was aware of the reported arrest. The U.S. State Department
in Washington had no immediate comment.
Johnson said China-based Young Pioneer Tours was in contact with
Warmbier's family and U.S. officials.
"We are in touch with Otto's family, the U.S. State Department and
the Embassy of Sweden in Pyongyang and doing all we can to secure
his release," Johnson told Reuters.
 The Swedish Embassy represents U.S. interests in North Korea.
KCNA said Warmbier had entered the country with an "aim to destroy
the country's unity". It did not elaborate.
According to his social media profiles, Warmbier is from Cincinnati
and is an Echols Scholar, awarded to the top seven percent of
incoming first year students at the University of Virginia, where he
majors in economics with a minor in global sustainability.
Warmbier has also visited Cuba, Ireland and Israel, according to his
Facebook profile.
Warmbier was detained four days before North Korea conducted its
fourth nuclear test in violation of UN sanctions, which drew
condemnation from its neighbors and the United States.
South Korea warned that the United States and its allies were
working on further sanctions to inflict "bone-numbing pain" on North
Korea after its latest nuclear test, and urged China to do its part
to rein in its neighbor.
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North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners, and the U.S.
and Canadian governments advise against travel there.
Pyongyang has in the past used detained U.S. citizens to extract
high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no
formal diplomatic relations.
While the vast majority of tourists to North Korea are from China,
roughly 6,000 westerners visit the country annually. Most are
adventure-seekers curious about life behind the last sliver of the
iron curtain, and ignore critics who say their dollars prop up a
repressive regime.
Warmbier was on Young Pioneer's "New Year's Party Tour", which,
according to the itinerary on the company's website, was to include
watching fireworks in Kim Il Sung Square in the heart of Pyongyang,
and an optional helicopter ride.
A South Korean-born Canadian pastor was arrested in North Korea last
year and given a life sentence for subversion. Earlier this month, a
Korean-American man told CNN in Pyongyang that he was being held by
the state for spying.
In 2014, Pyongyang released three detained Americans. Last October,
it freed a South Korean national with a U.S. green card after
holding him for six months.
(Additional reporting by Christine Kim and Se Young Lee in SEOUL and
David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by
Nick Macfie)
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