It's been almost a year since Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American student, was detained in North Korea - and not much progress has been made in the case to get him back.

Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was sentenced in March to 15 years of hard labor after he confessed he had tried to steal a propaganda banner from a Pyongyang hotel.

Warmbier, of Wyoming, Ohio, was arrested on January 2 as he was departing the East Asian country.

He told a North Korean court he tried to steal the banner as a trophy for an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church.

He had also been charged with trying to gather information that could be used against the North Korean leadership.

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It's been almost one year since Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American student, was detained in North Korea - and not much progress has been made in the case to get him back. Warmbier is pictured in April 2016

Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was sentenced in March to 15 years of hard labor after he confessed he had tried to steal a propaganda banner from a Pyongyang hotel

The Coming Collapse of China author Gordon Chang told Fox News: 'I assume he feels isolated. He's likely only reading propaganda and feels abandoned by the outside world.'

The US government condemned the sentence and accused North Korea of using such American detainees as political pawns.

In April, North Korea's foreign minister Ri Su Yong countered that Warmbier was being used by Washington 'as a tactic to make our lives difficult' by creating internal disturbances.

In April, North Korea's foreign minister Ri Su Yong (pictured) said that Warmbier was being used by Washington 'as a tactic to make our lives difficult' by creating internal disturbances

Ri noted that the North Korean government has allowed previous detainees to leave the country, often after senior US statesmen have come to get them.

Indeed, former president Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea in 2009 and met with officials. Kim Jong-il would pardon American journalists Euna Lee and Lisa Ling, who had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

Regarding the efforts to get Warmbier, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson told Fox News this month: 'We don't know anything new, the progress has been very slow, but the North Koreans did accept my delegation from my foundation [ed note: the Richardson Center for Global Engagement] that specializes in getting American soldiers out of prisons around the world.'

Richardson said: 'The progress has been slow. I've proposed to the North Koreans that I go to try talk to them. This is - the White House is aware of this.

'They've been supportive, but it's not a government-to-government deal, because we have a very bad relationship with North Korea.'

He explained: 'We're trying to do this on a humanitarian basis, not a government-to-government basis.'

Richardson told Fox News, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, 'in the past, we could talk to his father [Kim Jong-il] when he was the president and you could make deals, but now there's just like silence. There's nothing coming back.'

In June, North Korean state media said the country will not negotiate with the US over Warmbier and another American it is holding, Kim Dong Chul, until former detainee Kenneth Bae stops publicly talking about his time in prison.

North Korea arrested Bae, a US missionary, in November 2012 and sentenced him to 15 years' hard labour for crimes against the state.

He was released two years later and has written an account of his detention in a memoir released in May. Since then, Bae has spoken about his experiences at several public appearances and given interviews to promote the book.

In August, the US urged North Korea to pardon and release on Warmbier on humanitarian grounds, with State Department spokesman John Kirby calling for Warmbier's pardon and release during a daily news briefing.

Warmbier told a North Korean court he tried to steal the banner as a trophy for an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church (March 2016 photo)

In November, North Korea said that it had discussed the issue of American and Canadian detainees with the Swedish ambassador in the country.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry official met with the Swedish ambassador on November 24 for talks on consular access for Canadian detainee Hyeon Soo Lim, a Christian pastor, sentenced last year to life in prison with hard labor, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.

The Swedish ambassador used the meeting as a chance to raise the issue of consular affairs for the American detainees.

The Pyongyang official, identified as the director general of the ministry's European Department 2, reiterated a position that the North will handle the issues of detained Americans line with a wartime law, according to the KCNA.

In July, North Korea announced that it would handle all issues between the two countries in line with a wartime law in response to US sanctions that target leader Kim Jong-un.

It has not elaborated on what wartime law means, although analysts say that suggests North Korea could deal with US detainees in a harsher manner.

Korean-American Kim Dong Chul is serving a 10-year prison term with hard labor, while Warmbier received 15 years.

Lim, who pastored the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, was convicted by Pyongyang's Supreme Court for trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system and helping US and South Korean authorities lure and abduct North Korean citizens.

North Korea is often accused by other governments of using foreign detainees as a way to win concessions from other countries.

Pyongyang is locked in a long-running standoff with Washington and other countries over its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

State Department spokeswoman Julie Mason told Fox News that 'now that Mr. Warmbier has gone through this criminal process, we urge the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] to pardon him and grant him special amnesty and immediate release on humanitarian grounds'.