US student sorry for ‘severe’ crime in North Korea

A US student held in North Korea since early January was detained for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his Pyongyang hotel and has confessed to “severe crimes” against the state, the North’s official media said.

Otto Warmbier, 21, a student at 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 exact high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.