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.  Story highlights Detained student was a high school salutatorian, CNN affiliate reports 
 
 Otto Frederick Warmbier is a student at the University of Virginia 
 
 A Chinese travel company says Warmbier was detained January 2 in in Pyongyang 
 
 (CNN) A University of Virginia college student from Cincinnati has been detained in North Korea after being accused of a "hostile act" against the government there. 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 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. 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. "We are in contact with the Swedish Embassy... who are working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address the case. 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. 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. 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. This month, a Korean-American told CNN in Pyongyang he was being held by the state for spying. In 2014, North Korea released three Americans it was holding in detention - Matthew Todd Miller, Kenneth Bae and Jeffrey Fowle.
– 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.