Deirdre Shesgreen

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Cincinnati college student now under arrest in North Korea is probably being held in an isolated cell, as that country’s leaders begin to “milk” his detention for attention from high-level U.S. officials.

“It’s a familiar pattern that they use,” said Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who helped win the release of an American detained in North Korea in 1996. He also spent four days in North Korea in 2007 to win the release of the bodies of six American servicemen missing since the Korean War.

Richardson said the North Koreans view their new American prisoner, Wyoming High School graduate Otto Warmbier, as a “bargaining chip” and a way to send a message to the United States.

What the isolated nation wants in return for his release, he said, is not clear yet. But he said it will take intense negotiations and careful diplomacy to win Warmbier’s freedom.

U.S. student arrested in North Korea for 'hostile act'

In the meantime, Richardson said: “The young student is probably terrified. He’s held in some kind of isolated state. He’s being informed he will be tried. They won’t tell him when.”

Richardson predicted that in the coming days, the North Koreans would allow Warmbier to call his family.

North Korea has detained at least nine American citizens over the past decade. Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea increased earlier this month, after the rogue nation claimed it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.

U.N. Security Council condemns North Korea nuclear test

Richardson, a former New Mexico congressman and governor, said the North Koreans may initially ask for some humanitarian assistance, such as shipments of rice or other food. And they will almost certainly request a high-level envoy from the U.S. come to North Korea before they agree to release the University of Virginia student.

“It’s intensive negotiations back and forth, first with a U.N. mission in New York and then when you are there, a lot of meetings, a lot of persuasion,” Richardson said. “The release happens when the North Koreans feel that the hostage is of no more use, they’ve milked it.”

He said the North Korean government often uses the negotiations to get global press attention and then seeks to portray the hostage release as a humanitarian gesture.