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* HEAR FROM JEFFREY FOWLE: West Carrollton man held in North Korea tells what he went through, what might be happening to Cincinnati man
* KASICH TO OBAMA: Read the letter the governor sent the president
* WHAT WE KNOW: Latest news
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The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report that the student, whom it identified as Warmbier Otto Frederick, was “arrested while perpetrating a hostile act,” but it didn’t explain the nature of the act. North Korea has sometimes listed English-language surnames first, in the Korean style. The University of Virginia’s online student directory lists Otto Frederick Warmbier as an undergraduate commerce student.
In a letter sent Friday to Obama, Kasich wrote North Korea “should be called upon either to provide immediate evidence of Mr. Warmbier’s alleged anti-state activities or to discharge Mr. Warmbier from custody immediately.” The letter said Warmbier was reportedly detained Jan. 2.
“American citizens must be allowed to travel abroad without the risk of being arrested arbitrarily and then held hostage for purposes of ransom, the forced reopening of diplomatic negotiations or acts designed to antagonize the United States,” he wrote.
Tony Hall: North Korea is ‘difficult’ to deal with
A former congressman who was instrumental in release two years ago of a West Carrollton man detained in North Korea said the United States has little leverage over the isolated state.
“It’s difficult,” said Tony Hall, a former Dayton area congressman and ambassador to the United Nations.
“They’re tough people, and they don’t give an inch,” said Hall. “They are very, very tough people, and you’ve really got to understand them and their culture, and the fact that they are a sovereign nation and that’s important to understand.”
Hall helped negotiate the release of West Carrollton resident Jeffrey Fowle, who flew aboard a U.S. government jet to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base after he was released in October 2014.
The United States had little leverage with North Korea, which has an embassy in New York City, Hall said.
“One of the problems is we don’t have a lot of leverage with North Korea because we don’t have a relationship with them to speak of that’s good,” he said.
North Korea’s detention of Warmbier “really doesn’t give them much leverage at all, it just gets our attention and it creates another difficult situation for the family of this young man and our government.”
Hall said he was in communication with North Korea representatives in the United States to push for the release of Fowle.
“I think everybody was honest with each other, and I think the North Korean ambassador and I had very good conversations and I had a pretty good relationship with him,” he said. “I think we just kind of laid our cards on the table and in the end I think they decided that … there was no reason to keep (Fowle).”
Hall last traveled to North Korea on a humanitarian mission about four years ago. He said he doesn’t expect he’ll be called on this time to lobby the North Korean government to release Warmbier.
Warmbier, described as a skilled a soccer player, was the salutatorian in his high school class in 2013, Wyoming City Schools spokeswoman Susanna Max said Friday.
The school district contacted the family but declined comment. “We’re really trying hard to respect the family’s privacy,” she said.
Lawmaker reaction
Spokespersons for Ohio’s two U.S. senators said the lawmakers had been in contact with Warmbier’s family.
“Our office is in contact with the State Department and the family, and we will do everything we can to help bring him home safely,” Jennifer Donohue, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said in an email.
“We have been in contact with the State Department regarding Mr. Warmbier and plan to closely monitor the situation,” Christyn Lansing, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in an email. “We are also reaching out to his family to offer any assistance we may be able to provide.”
Why was he there?
A China-based tour company specializing in travel to North Korea, Young Pioneer Tours, confirmed that one of its customers, identified only as “Otto,” had been detained in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, but provided no other details. On its website, the tour company touts it specializes in travel to North Korea, saying, “we are an adventure tour operator that provides ‘budget tours to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from.’”
Social media accounts for Warmbier show interests in finance, travel and rap music; he was on the University of Virginia’s dean’s list.
The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it was “aware of media reports that a U.S. citizen was detained in North Korea,” but had “no further information to share due to privacy considerations.”
Local lawyer has history with North Korea
An attorney who represented Fowle for nearly six months in 2014 advised caution for those involved with the student.
“They (North Korea) kind of trickle information out, but what’s actually going on can be very different,” said attorney Timothy Tepe of Lebanon, Ohio, adding that he learned that North Korean authorities monitor reports and comments about detainees. “You have to be careful what you say.”
He said Fowle is “doing wonderful” and seems to have adjusted well to life at his home near Dayton. The married father of three attends church regularly with his family and returned to a job in the city of Moraine’s street department, Tepe said.
Fowle said in 2014 he had left a Bible in a North Korean nightclub in hopes it would reach underground Christians.
North Korea’s announcement Friday comes amid a diplomatic push by Washington, Seoul and their allies to slap Pyongyang with tough sanctions for its recent nuclear test. In the past, North Korea has occasionally announced the arrests of foreign detainees in times of tension with the outside world in an apparent attempt to wrest concessions or diplomatic maneuvering room.
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Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in Cincinnati and Libby Quaid and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.
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