N. Korea detains US citizen; 3rd American being held

The embassy looks after consular affairs for the United States in North Korea because the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.

The State Department also said it was aware of the report about a U.S. citizen being detained, but declined further comment "due to privacy considerations."

Kim previously taught Korean at the Yanbian University of Science and Technology in Yanji, China, not far from the North Korea border, said the school's Communist Party Committee secretary, who would only give his surname, Huang.

Though no details on why Kim was detained have been released, the detention comes at a time of unusually heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

Hyeon Soo Lim, a South Korean-born Canadian citizen in his 60s, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2015 on charges of trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system and helping U.S. and South Korean authorities lure and abduct North Korean citizens.