Who Is Tony Kim? List Of American Citizens Detained By North Korea

North Korea arrested a former Korean-American professor as he was trying to leave the country last week, according to sources. This arrest brings the total number of U.S. citizens being held in the communist country to three.

The latest American citizen to be arrested was identified as Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang-duk, the Associated Press reported Sunday. He was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport as he was attempting to leave for China, the report added.

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According to Pyongyang University of Science and Technology’s chancellor Park Chan Mo, Kim taught accounting at the university for about a month. He had previously taught at the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China. The 58-year-old was engaged in aid and relief programs to North Korea, according to sources, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

The news agency also reported the director of Seoul’s World North Korea Research Center, Ahn Chan-il, saying that the North “seems to be intending to use professor Kim as leverage in negotiations” as relations between Kim Jong Un’s regime and the United States deteriorate.

Kim’s arrest is the latest in the detainment of U.S. citizens carried out by North Korea. Two other citizens have also been kept in the country after being sentenced to long years in prison.

Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old college student from the University of Virginia, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor last year after he confessed to attempting to steal a political propaganda banner from the hotel he was staying at.

Korean-American pastor Kim Dong-chul has also been detained in the country. He was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in prison over charges that include espionage. He was born in South Korea, but reports say he is a U.S. citizen.

The tensions between North Korea and the U.S. have been escalating since the East Asian country ramped up its nuclear program, conducting numerous missile tests over the past two years.