Report: American detained in North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- North Korea said Thursday it had detained a U.S. citizen but gave no other details.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said in a two-paragraph report the American had trespassed into the country from the border with China last Monday and that he was under investigation.

CNN quoted a U.S. State Department official who said the department was aware of the report but had no additional details.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said the U.S. Embassy also did not have details, but if confirmed, it would be the second such incident after Korean-American missionary Robert Pak crossed into North Korean last month.

The 28-year-old Park remains under detention and the United States is trying to contact him through a foreign embassy in Pyongyang, the report said, adding it was not clear if the latest incident reported by North Korea is linked to the earlier one.

Last March, two U.S. women journalists who had crossed into North Korea were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor but were freed after former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang.

The latest incident comes after South Korea reported the North in the past two days had fired artillery shells into waters along their disputed maritime border.