SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has detained a U.S. university student, the third western citizen known to be held in the isolated state, for committing a “hostile act” and wanting to “destroy the country’s unity”, it said on Friday. 
 
 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”. 
 
 The U.S. State Department, in a statement, said it was aware of reports that a U.S. citizen had been detained in North Korea but gave no other details, citing privacy concerns. 
 
 U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, whose district includes the area where Warmbier went to high school, tweeted on Friday that his office was asking the State Department “to assist however possible in getting Mr. Warmbier home.” 
 
 Further official comment was not immediately available as U.S. government offices were closed ahead of an impending blizzard. 
 
 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 7 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. 
 
 A friend and former high-school classmate of Warmbier, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters: “Otto is a wonderful, warm person who should never have to go through anything like this. ... The idea that any of this happened is crazy.” 
 
 Calls to the Warmbier home in Cincinnati, Ohio, were not immediately answered on Friday and nobody answered when a Reuters reporter knocked on the door of the house. 
 
 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. 
 
 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. This month, a Korean-American told CNN in Pyongyang 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. ||||| Image copyright Facebook 
 
 North Korea says it has arrested a US student accused of committing a "hostile act" against the state. 
 
 State news agency KCNA identified him as University of Virginia student Otto Frederick Warmbier. 
 
 He had entered North Korea as a tourist with the intention "to destroy the country's unity", said KCNA, which added that the US government had "tolerated and manipulated" him. 
 
 It did not give further details, but said he was now under investigation. 
 
 The US State Department is "aware of media reports that a US citizen was detained in North Korea" and is working with its protecting power, the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner said. 
 
 He said that no further information would be shared at this time due to privacy concerns. 
 
 North Korea sometimes uses the detention of foreigners as a means of exerting pressure on its adversaries. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption The incident follows escalating tensions with rivals including the US and South Korea 
 
 Detained on tour 
 
 China-based tour agency Young Pioneer Tours released a statement confirming that Mr Warmbier had been detained while on one of their tours in Pyongyang, and said his family had been informed. 
 
 It had earlier told Reuters that Mr Warmbier was arrested on 2 January. 
 
 "We are in contact with the Swedish Embassy... who are working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address the case. We are also assisting the US Department of State closely with regards to the situation," it said in the statement. 
 
 "In the meantime we would appreciate Otto's and his family's privacy being respected and we hope his release can be secured as soon as possible." 
 
 Sweden represents US interests in North Korea as Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations. 
 
 Image copyright KNS/AFP/Getty Images Image caption Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim is also being held by North Korea 
 
 Mr Warmbier, listed by the University of Virginia's directory as an undergraduate commerce student, is the third Westerner known to be held in North Korea. 
 
 Hyeon Soo Lim, a Canadian pastor of South Korean origin, was sentenced to life imprisonment in December for an alleged plot to overthrow the government. 
 
 A Korean-American is also thought to be in North Korean detention on charges of spying. 
 
 The latest incident comes amid escalating tensions, after the North said it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. The claim has not yet been confirmed. 
 
 South Korea has resumed propaganda broadcasts over the border, while the North has been dropping propaganda leaflets on the South. 
 
 The United States is leading calls for new UN economic penalties against the North in the wake of the nuclear test. 
 
 The state department strongly advises Americans against travelling to North Korea. 
 
 In 2014, North Korea released three Americans it was holding in detention - Matthew Todd Miller, Kenneth Bae and Jeffrey Fowle. ||||| SEOUL (Reuters) - Otto Warmbier, the American university student being held by North Korea, was detained before boarding his flight to China over an unspecified incident that had taken place earlier in the trip at his hotel, his travel company told Reuters on Saturday. 
 
 North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said on Friday that Warmbier “was caught committing a hostile act against the state”, which it said was “tolerated and manipulated by the U.S. government”. 
 
 Charlotte Guttridge, a tour leader at Young Pioneer Tours and the only outside witness to Warmbier’s detention, said the 21-year-old University of Virginia student was not with other tourists when the events that appear to have prompted his arrest occurred. 
 
 “What happened, happened at the hotel and my belief is that Otto kept it to himself out of hope it might go unnoticed,” Guttridge told Reuters. 
 
 Guttridge and colleagues at Young Pioneer Tours declined to share further details of exactly what had taken place, citing the safety of their client. 
 
 Warmbier had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel when the incident that led to his arrest occurred. The Yanggakdo is a towering structure on an island in the middle of the Taedong river, which cuts through central Pyongyang. 
 
 China-based Young Pioneer Tours is a North Korea travel specialist that describes itself on its website as “an adventure tour operator that provides ‘budget tours to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from’”. 
 
 During his five-day New Year’s tour of North Korea, staff at Young Pioneer Tours said Warmbier had acted normally, and was keen to see daily life in one of the world’s most isolated countries, which is visited by around 6,000 Western tourists a year. Ten other U.S. citizens were on the tour. 
 
 “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 said. 
 
 DELAYED AT IMMIGRATION 
 
 When Warmbier’s group reached the airport, he appeared to have been purposefully delayed at immigration, Troy Collings, director of Young Pioneer Tours, told Reuters. 
 
 As the tourists checked-in at the gleaming, recently-renovated terminal, Warmbier was taken aside by two airport officials and escorted into a small immigration room behind a wooden door to one side of the check-in area. 
 
 “He was not dragged away and he wasn’t yelled at,” Guttridge said. 
 
 As Guttridge waited for Warmbier to come out of the room, she instructed the rest of her tour group to board the North Korean Air Koryo flight bound for Beijing. 
 
 “When it became clear that he wasn’t coming, I had to board the flight before it departed,” said Guttridge, who still had colleagues in Pyongyang with another group of tourists. “I was the last to board the flight.” 
 
 As the Russian-made Tupolev airliner prepared to leave the terminal, an airport official boarded the plane and told Guttridge that Warmbier had been “taken to hospital”. 
 
 Soon after, a North Korean contact passed on a message concerning Warmbier’s detention to Young Pioneer Tours founder Gareth Johnson, who was in Pyongyang with a separate group due to catch a train to the Chinese border. 
 
 “I stayed back when I heard Otto had been detained,” Johnson told Reuters. “It was an automatic response. I wanted to try and work out what the situation was and it was my hope that I would at least be able to speak with him.” 
 
 Johnson said his company was in contact with Warmbier’s family, U.S. officials and the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which represents U.S. interests in North Korea. 
 
 Staff at the tour operator said as far as they knew Warmbier had not been in possession of any religious or political literature. Foreign visitors have been detained in the past for attempting to distribute religious literature in the country. The U.S. and Canadian governments advise against travel there. 
 
 The U.S. State Department, in a statement, said it was aware of reports that a U.S. citizen had been detained in North Korea but gave no further details, citing privacy concerns. 
 
 Calls to the Warmbier family home in Cincinnati, Ohio, were not immediately answered on Friday and nobody answered when a Reuters reporter knocked on the door of the house.
– North Korea says it has detained an American student from the University of Virginia who visited the country as part of a "New Year's Party Tour." A rep for Chinese travel company Young Pioneer Tours says undergraduate commerce student Otto Frederick Warmbier, 21, was arrested at Pyongyang airport on Jan. 2 after a five-day tourist trip. North Korea's official news agency says he visited with the "aim to destroy the country's unity" and "was caught committing a hostile act against the state," which was "tolerated and manipulated by the US government," per Reuters. The US Embassy in Seoul says it's aware of Warmbier's arrest, per CNN. The tour group says it's working with the State Department and the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which represents US interests there. "We would appreciate Otto's and his family's privacy being respected and we hope his release can be secured as soon as possible," a rep tells the BBC. Reuters notes about 6,000 westerners travel to North Korea each year; the "New Year's Party Tour" Warmbier was participating in promised a fireworks display in Kim Il Sung Square. One other American citizen is being held in North Korea. Kim Dong Chul, who says he's a naturalized US citizen who used to live in Virginia, was arrested in October.