North Korea said Friday it has detained an American citizen who visited the country as a tourist in April. The state-run news agency KCNA identified the man as Jeffrey Edward Fowle, saying authorities are investigating him for "hostile activities" after he allegedly left a Bible at a hotel. Fowle visited North Korea as part of a tour group in late April and has been in custody since mid-May, a Japanese news organization reports.
Fowle's arrest makes him the third U.S. citizen known to be detained by the secretive country. North Korea announced in late April that it had 24-year-old tourist Miller Matthew Todd in custody for reportedly demanding asylum. It also sentenced missionary Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American caught in the country in 2012, to 15 years of hard labor for "acts aimed at bringing down the regime of leader Kim Jong Un."
The U.S. State Department said it was "aware" that North Korea had arrested a third American citizen, but didn't share further details.
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