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            Details Emerge About US Student Detained in North Korea

   by VOA News

   An American student detained in North Korea for alleged "anti-state"
   activities is being described by his fellow travel partners as a
   "typical tourist."

   North Korea announced Friday it detained Otto Warmbier, a University of
   Virginia undergrad student, for the unspecified "hostile" acts, and was
   conducting an investigation.

   The 21-year-old Warmbier had entered Pyongyang with the China-based
   Young Pioneers Tours company, which regularly takes foreigners to the
   isolated country.

   ''Charlotte Guttridge, a tour leader with Young Pioneer Tours, told the
   Reuters news agency Saturday that Warmbier was detained at the airport
   as he was trying to board a flight back to China.

   ''Warmbier apparently was detained over an earlier incident at the
   Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang, said Guttridge, who
   declined to comment on the specific nature of the incident.

   Typical tourist
   "Throughout the trip, Otto behaved as a typical tourist -- taking
   pictures, enjoying himself. We had no indication that anything untoward
   had happened until the airport," Guttridge told Reuters.

   In a statement published in the state-run Korean Central News Agency,
   North Korean officials hinted that Warmbier was acting with the support
   or on behalf of the U.S. government.

   North Korea, which has provided no evidence for this claim, has
   regularly detained American and other foreign citizens, on trumped up
   charges.

   The detainees are often convicted of crimes in hasty trials and
   sometimes are sentenced to hard labor. But they are typically released,
   sometimes following visits by U.S. officials.

   Analysts say North Korea often tries to use the detainees as bargaining
   chips with the West.
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   ed-in-north-korea/3159591.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/detail-emerge-about-us-student-detained-in-north-korea/3159591.html