North Korea Detains Second US Citizen

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North Korea Detains Second US Citizen

Michelle Ruiz

AOL News

(Jan. 28) -- For the second time in the last month, a U.S. citizen has been detained in North Korea.

In a brief news dispatch today, North Korea said it arrested an American man for illegally entering the country from the Chinese border. The unidentified man was detained on Monday and is being questioned, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment today. The U.S. embassies in Beijing and Seoul offered no comment.

Another U.S. citizen, Robert Park, was detained in North Korea late last month and accused of illegally crossing the North Korean-Chinese border. The state did not identify Park, a 28-year-old Korean-American missionary, but activists in the U.S. said Park was apprehended after he traveled to North Korea to call attention to the country's human rights abuses. Park is believed to have entered North Korea by crossing the frozen Tumen River that demarcates part of the border.

With no diplomatic ties to North Korea, the U.S. is seeking access to Park through the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, according to U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, who addressed reporters Wednesday in Washington. A similar avenue may have to be taken in order to gain consular access to the man arrested this week.

At the time of Park's arrest, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters, "We are concerned by these reports and we are looking into them."

Last year, American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were detained for illegally entering North Korea and sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp. They were released after four months as part of a diplomatic mission led by former President Bill Clinton.

The second arrest of a U.S. citizen comes the same week North Korea is exchanging fire with South Korea. The North initially fired artillery shells into the water near its maritime border with the South, prompting warning fire from the South. North Korea continued firing into the water for a second day today, after making a statement that the activity was part of a military drill.

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