North Korea - you can love them, you can loathe them, but you cannot ignore them. In their latest attempt to attract the attention of the world (for all the wrong reasons, of course), North Korea has sentenced an American national to 15 years of hard labour for apparently stealing a propaganda sign from a hotel. The USA has responded to the news, demanding the immediate release of the student convicted in Pyongyang. Otto Frederick Warmbier, a 21-year-old student from the University of Virginia, was convicted of subversive activities and sentenced by North Korea's Supreme Court, the North's official KCNA news agency said. On the other side of the globe, White House spokesman Josh Earnest charged that North Korea was using US citizens as "pawns to pursue a political agenda" and urged it to free him. "We strongly encourage the North Korean government to pardon him and grant him special amnesty and immediate release," said Earnest. "The allegations for which this individual was arrested and imprisoned would not give rise to arrest or imprisonment in the United States or in just about any other country in the world."

Observers claim that the harsh sentence was likely a reflection of soaring military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North's nuclear test in January this year and long-range rocket launch a month later. The United States took a leading role in securing the resulting sanctions that the UN Security Council imposed on the North earlier this month. Off late, Pyongyang has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion. In announcing the jail sentence, KCNA said Warmbier had committed his offence "pursuant to the US government's hostile policy" towards North Korea.

Student charged with "hostile acts"

Warmbier had initially been arrested in early January on charges of "hostile acts" against the state. KCNA said he was convicted under an article of the criminal code dealing with subversion."In the course of the inquiry, the accused confessed to the serious offence," it said. Warmbier was arrested as he was leaving the country with a tour group. He later said he had removed a political banner from the staff-only area of the Pyongyang hotel where the group had stayed. The sentence came just hours after veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson reportedly met two diplomats from North Korea's UN office in New York to press for Warmbier's release. He is one of three North Americans currently detained in North Korea, which recently sentenced a 60-year-old Canadian pastor to life imprisonment with hard labour on sedition charges.