UVA student reportedly arrested in North Korea for 'hostile acts'

(Image credit: Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

published 22 January 2016

North Korea said Friday that it arrested University of Virginia student Otto Frederick Warmbier, 21, for allegedly committing a "hostile act" against the state. Warmbier was reportedly arrested Jan. 2 at Pyongyang airport as he prepared to depart from a five-day trip to North Korea over New Years Eve, just four days before North Korea carried out its nuclear test.

North Korea has yet to release any details about the alleged "hostile act," but the notoriously isolated nation did say that Warmbier entered as a tourist with the intention "to destroy the country's unity" and that the U.S. government had "tolerated and manipulated him" BBC reports.