U.S. citizen was detained in North Korea for pro-West material

Warmbier landed in Cincinnati Tuesday night. Two ambulances met the plane on the runway to transfer Otto to the hospital.

Mr. Warmbier traveled to North Korea for a five-day tourist trip, despite State Department warnings and the North's long record of taking Americans hostage. But State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Rodman had nothing to do with Warmbier's release.

In 2014, Rodman arranged a basketball game with other former NBA players and North Koreans and regaled leader Kim with a rendition of "Happy Birthday".

"At the direction of the President, the Department of State has secured the release of Otto Warmbier from North Korea", Tillerson said in a statement.

According to some intelligence reports, Warmbier was repeatedly beaten while imprisoned in North Korea.

The U.S. relies on Sweden to represent its interests in North Korea, since the U.S. has no direct diplomatic relations with North Korea itself.

The release came amid tension between Washington and Pyongyang following a series of missile tests by the North, focusing attention on an arms buildup that Pentagon chief Jim Mattis on Monday dubbed "a clear and present danger to all". But the nation still has three more Americans in its jails.

Warmbier is a University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati.

Warmbier was sentenced in March 2016 after a televised tearful public confession to trying to steal a propaganda banner. Yun insisted on Warmbier's immediate release on humanitarian grounds, officials said, and the North Koreans agreed.

Otto Warmbier, 22, has been in a coma since shortly after his arrest in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, his parents said Tuesday.

Otto Warmbier's parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, confirmed in a statement that their son is in a coma.

We said, at the time of Mr. Warmbier's arrest and conviction, that North Korea has a history of obtaining worldwide prisoners who later can be used as political bargaining chips.

Pyongyang accused him of supporting the US hostile policy against the DPRK and undermining the unity of the DPRK people.

In Wyoming, resident Amy Mayer said news of his release had sent waves of shock and joy through the neighborhood. US officials last had consular access to Warmbier on March 2, 2016, through the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, Nauert said. The official referred to them as "hostages".

There was no immediate confirmation from USA officials of North Korea's description of his illness.

Jeffrey Fowle, another US tourist from OH detained for six months at about the same time as Miller, was released just before that and sent home on a USA government plane.

Rodman received the red-carpet treatment on his four past trips since 2013, which generated a lot of publicity - most of it not good - and did little in terms of diplomacy.

The news surfaced after the flamboyant retired NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman - a former contestant on Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice" reality show - flew to Pyongyang to resume his quixotic quest to broker detente between his United States homeland and Kim Jong-Un's authoritarian regime. Rodman was a cast member on two seasons of Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice".

There was some speculation that he might plead the case for the American detainees, but en route to North Korea he told reporters "my goal is to actually see if I can keep bringing sports to North Korea".

North Korea's first private university, PUST was founded and remains operated by actors outside the country, mostly Evangelical Christian organizations.

North Korea has freed an imprisoned USA citizen from its custody, Turkey's Anadolu Agency (AA) reported Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as saying on Tuesday.

Lee said South Korea is also making efforts to seek the release of its own citizens now held in North Korea.

- Kim Hak Song, who was detained in early May to be investigated for committing unspecified hostile acts, North Korea has said.