[AP / Yonhap]
South Korea was unaware of a US professor detained in an airport last week when he was about to leave North Korea after teaching at a university set up by a Korean-American Christian businessman, officials said.
The man identified as Tony Kim in his late 50s was reportedly arrested Friday at an airport in Pyongyang. North Korean did not mention the detention of Kim, who is known to be a professor at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
The case came amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's continued nuclear and missile tests.
The South's unification ministry said Monday that it was not aware of Kim's arrest. "Because he is not a South Korean citizen, we are not aware of his whereabouts after his visit to North Korea," ministry spokesman Lee Duk-haeng told reporters.
The man involved in aid and relief programs to North Korea was a former professor at the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China, Yonhap news agency said.
Kim is the third known US citizen to be detained by North Korea. Last year, Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, and Kim Dong-chul, a Korean-American businessman, were sentenced to 15 years and 10 years of hard labor, respectively, for alleged subversive acts.
Traditionally, Pyongyang has used the detention of American citizens to win concessions from Washington.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
