N. Korea: We have detained another US citizen

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North Korea said on Sunday it has detained another US citizen on suspicion of "hostile acts" against the state, which would make him the fourth American to be held by the isolated country amid heightened diplomatic tensions with Washington.
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SEOUL • North Korea said yesterday it has detained another American citizen on suspicion of acts against the state, which, if confirmed, would make him the fourth US citizen to be held by the isolated country amid diplomatic tensions.

Mr Kim Hak Song, who was detained on Saturday, worked for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), the North's KCNA news agency said.

"A relevant institution of the DPRK detained American citizen Kim Hak Song on May 6 under a law of the DPRK on suspension of his hostile acts against it," KCNA said. DPRK is short for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

Another US citizen, Mr Kim Sang Dok, who was associated with the same school, was detained late last month for alleged hostile acts, according to the North's official media.

The reported detention comes as tensions on the Korean peninsula run high, driven by harsh rhetoric from Pyongyang and Washington over the North's pursuit of nuclear weapons in response to what it says is a threat of US-instigated war.

The PUST was founded by evangelical Christians and opened in 2010. Its students are generally children of the country's elite.

A message by Mr Kim Hak Song dated February 2015 on the website of a Korean-Brazilian church in Sao Paulo said he was a Christian missionary planning to start an experimental farm at PUST and was trying to help the North Korean people learn to become self-sufficient.

No further details were available about the circumstances relating to the arrests of the two men associated with the college.

The other two Americans already being held in North Korea are Mr Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old student, and Mr Kim Dong Chul, a 62-year-old Korean-American missionary, who was sentenced to 10 years' hard labour for subversion.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 08, 2017, with the headline N. Korea: We have detained another US citizen. Subscribe