North Korea has detained a US citizen, officials said, bringing to three the number of Americans now being held there.
Tony Kim, who also goes by his Korean name Kim Sang-duk, was detained on Saturday, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology chancellor Park Chan-mo said.
Park said Kim, who is 58, taught accounting at the university for about a month.
He said Kim was detained by officials as he was trying to leave the country from Pyongyang’s international airport.
A university spokesman said he was trying to leave with his wife on a flight to China.
The Swedish embassy in Pyongyang on Sunday said it was aware of a Korean-American citizen being detained, but could not comment further.
The embassy looks after consular affairs for the US in North Korea because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.
The US Department of State also said it was aware of the report about a US citizen being detained, but declined further comment “due to privacy considerations.”
Park said he was informed that the detention had “nothing to do” with Kim’s work at the university, but did not know further details.
Kim previously taught Korean at the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in Yanji, China, not far from the North Korean border, said the school’s Chinese Communist Party Committee secretary, who would only give his surname, Huang.
Kim resigned in August last year and has not contacted the school since, Huang said.
“We don’t know anything about his trip to North Korea,” Huang said.
As of yesterday morning, North Korea’s official media had not reported the detention.
The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is the only privately funded university in North Korea. It held its first classes in 2010. It is unique in the North for its large number of foreign staff.
Colin McCulloch, the director of external affairs, said the university was not under investigation and was continuing its normal operations.
Though no details on why Kim was detained have been released, the detention comes at a time of unusually heightened tensions between the US and North Korea.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique