Jeffrey Edward Fowle, American Tourist, Detained in North Korea

Jeffrey Edward Fowle, an American tourist who entered North Korea in April, has now been detained by the country's officials for unspecific violations.

According to The Washington Post, state news agencies reported that Fowle, "perpetrated activities that violated the laws of our republic, which did not fit his stated purpose of visiting our republic as a tourist," and as such "Our related agency has detained him and is investigating him."

The U.S. State Department told American reporters it was "aware of reports that a third U.S. citizen was detained in North Korea," on Friday, shortly after the hermit nation announced its arrest.

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The department has a travel warning in place for North Korea, advising people against visiting.

Part of its advisory warns against arbitrary arrests for "activities that would not be considered criminal outside North Korea."

Three other U.S. citizens have run into trouble in recent years while touring there, the most recent being 24-year-old Matthew Todd Miller, who was detained in April.

The New York Times reported that Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly trying to use his tourism business as a front for a proselytizing network.

85-year-old Merrill E. Newman of California was also held for over a month after North Korean officials learned that he was a Korean War veteran who helped train anti-Communist guerillas during the war. He was charged with war crimes but eventually released because of his age.

North Korea has a history of using captured foreigners as bargaining chips with their respective home countries. In light of the Obama administration's recent swap of prisoner Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for the release of five Taliban operatives from Guantanamo Bay, the value of those Americans detained by North Korea may now be viewed as more valuable its leaders.

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