North Korea deports American even as it boasts of new weapon
WASHINGTON — North Korea on Friday deported an American citizen it says it detained for illegal entry, a U.S. official said, an apparent concession that came even as the reclusive nation announced the test of a newly developed but unspecified “ultramodern” weapon that will be seen as a pressuring tactic by Washington.
The two whiplash announcements, which seemed aimed at both appeasing and annoying Washington, suggest North Korea wants to keep alive dialogue with the United States, even as it struggles to express its frustration at stalled nuclear diplomacy.
North Korea in the past has held arrested American citizens for an extended period before high-profile U.S. figures travelled to Pyongyang to secure their freedom. Last year, American university student Otto Warmbier died days after he was released in a coma from North Korea after 17 months in captivity.
On Friday, the Korean Central News Agency said American national Bruce Byron Lowrance was detained on Oct. 16 for illegally entering the country from China. It said he told investigators that he was under the “manipulation” of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. It was not clear if the North’s spelling of the man’s name was correct, and past reports from Pyongyang have contained incorrect spellings.