<p>North Korea today sentenced an American student who admitted stealing a propaganda banner from a hotel to 15 years' hard labour for subversive activities, state media said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The judgement was handed down on Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old student from the University of Virginia, by North Korea's Supreme Court, the North's official KCNA news agency said.<br /><br />Observers said the harsh sentence was likely a reflection of soaring military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North's nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch a month later.<br /><br />The United States took a leading role in securing the resulting sanctions that the UN Security Council imposed on the North earlier this month.<br /><br />In recent weeks Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion.<br /><br />In announcing the jail sentence, KCNA said Warmbier had committed his offence "pursuant to the US government's hostile policy" towards North Korea.<br /><br />Warmbier had initially been arrested in early January on charges of "hostile acts" against the state. KCNA said he was convicted under an article of the criminal code dealing with subversion.<br /><br />"In the course of the inquiry, the accused confessed to the serious offence," it said, without elaborating.<br /><br />Warmbier was arrested as he was leaving the country with a tour group. He later said he had removed a political banner from the staff-only area of the Pyongyang hotel where the group had stayed.<br /><br />The sentence was handed down just hours after veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson reportedly met two diplomats from North Korea's UN office in New York to press for Warmbier's release.<br /><br />"I urged the humanitarian release of Otto, and they agreed to convey our request," Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, told the New York Times.<br /><br />In the past, North Korea has used the detention of US citizens to obtain high-profile visits from the likes of former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in order to secure their release.<br /><br />Richardson has travelled to North Korea several times over the years on diplomatic missions that have included negotiating the freedom of arrested Americans.<br /><br />The United States has no diplomatic or consular relations with the North. The Swedish embassy in Pyongyang provides limited consular services to US citizens detained there.<br /><br />Warmbier is one of three North Americans currently detained in North Korea, which recently sentenced a 60-year-old Canadian pastor to life imprisonment with hard labour on sedition charges. <br /><br /></p>
<p>North Korea today sentenced an American student who admitted stealing a propaganda banner from a hotel to 15 years' hard labour for subversive activities, state media said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The judgement was handed down on Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old student from the University of Virginia, by North Korea's Supreme Court, the North's official KCNA news agency said.<br /><br />Observers said the harsh sentence was likely a reflection of soaring military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North's nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch a month later.<br /><br />The United States took a leading role in securing the resulting sanctions that the UN Security Council imposed on the North earlier this month.<br /><br />In recent weeks Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion.<br /><br />In announcing the jail sentence, KCNA said Warmbier had committed his offence "pursuant to the US government's hostile policy" towards North Korea.<br /><br />Warmbier had initially been arrested in early January on charges of "hostile acts" against the state. KCNA said he was convicted under an article of the criminal code dealing with subversion.<br /><br />"In the course of the inquiry, the accused confessed to the serious offence," it said, without elaborating.<br /><br />Warmbier was arrested as he was leaving the country with a tour group. He later said he had removed a political banner from the staff-only area of the Pyongyang hotel where the group had stayed.<br /><br />The sentence was handed down just hours after veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson reportedly met two diplomats from North Korea's UN office in New York to press for Warmbier's release.<br /><br />"I urged the humanitarian release of Otto, and they agreed to convey our request," Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, told the New York Times.<br /><br />In the past, North Korea has used the detention of US citizens to obtain high-profile visits from the likes of former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in order to secure their release.<br /><br />Richardson has travelled to North Korea several times over the years on diplomatic missions that have included negotiating the freedom of arrested Americans.<br /><br />The United States has no diplomatic or consular relations with the North. The Swedish embassy in Pyongyang provides limited consular services to US citizens detained there.<br /><br />Warmbier is one of three North Americans currently detained in North Korea, which recently sentenced a 60-year-old Canadian pastor to life imprisonment with hard labour on sedition charges. <br /><br /></p>