American detained in North Korea ‘confessed to stealing political propaganda’

American student Otto Warmbier arrives at the People's Cultural House for a press conference in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea announced late last month that it had arrested the 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student. Kim Kwang Hyon / APShow less

SEOUL // An American student held in North Korea since early January was detained for trying to steal a propaganda slogan from his Pyongyang hotel.

Otto Warmbier, 21, has confessed to “severe crimes” against the state, the North’s official media said on Monday.

The student, from the University of Virginia, was detained before boarding his flight to China over an unspecified incident at his hotel, his tour agency said in January.

North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners and has used jailed US citizens in the past to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.

“I committed the crime of taking out a political slogan from the staff-only area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted Mr Warmbier as telling media in Pyongyang.

A video clip posted on CNN correspondent Will Ripley’s Twitter account showed a sobbing Mr Warmbier saying: “I have made the worst mistake of my life, but please act to save me.”

Mr Warmbier said a deaconess had offered him a used car worth US$10,000 (Dh36,730) if he could present the church with the slogan as a “trophy” from North Korea, KCNA said.

The acquaintance also said the church would pay his mother $200,000 if he was detained by the North and did not return, Mr Warmbier reportedly said.

“My crime is very severe and pre-planned,” Mr Warmbier was quoted as saying, adding that he was impressed by North Korea’s “humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself”.

Mr Warmbier's family have not heard from him since his arrest, according to the Cavalier Daily, the University of Virginia's student-run newspaper.

“He seems to be in good health, although we won’t know for sure about his condition until we have a chance to speak with him,” the newspaper said.

Other westerners detained in North Korea previously have confessed to crimes against the state.

North Korea’s state media said in January that Mr Warmbier “was caught committing a hostile act against the state”, which it said was “tolerated and manipulated by the US government”.

The senior pastor at Friendship United Methodist Church in Ohio, told CNN that he did not know the person identified by Mr Warmbier in the KCNA story as a deaconess there, and said Mr Warmbier was not a member of the congregation.

Mr Warmbier was on a five-day New Year’s tour of North Korea with a group of 20 and was delayed at immigration before being taken away by two airport officials, according to a tour operator that had sponsored the trip.

* Reuters