The U.S. announcement came as former National Basketball Association player Dennis Rodman was paying a return visit to Pyongyang.
U.S. secretary of state Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday that North Korea had released Otto Warmbier, an American serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor for alleged anti-state acts, as reports emerged that the 22-year-old has been in a coma for as long as a year. Rodman, refusing to deny he was on a Trump mission told CNN: "I'm pretty sure [Trump's] happy at the fact that I'm over here trying to accomplish something that we both need".
A statement issued in NY by a Rodman publicist said the former National Basketball Association player was in the rare position of being friends with the leaders of both North Korea and the United States. Whether that upswing will continue as Rodman makes public appearances in North Korea remains to be seen.
He also posted a video on YouTube talking about the "unique position" he finds himself in being friends with both Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Since then he has made a few visits to the country - with the most recent being June 2017, taking the tally up to what is thought to be at least five trips.
Dennis Rodman struck up a relationship with "awesome guy" Kim Jong-un Why is the former National Basketball Association star friends with Kim Jong-un?
Mr Rodman appeared on Celebrity Apprentice when it was hosted by Donald Trump, and supported the Republican during the presidential race.
"They were looking at ways to do that and this was one of the instruments they were looking at, and the foreign ministry thought it was advisable to formally extend an invitation", he told AFP.
After returning to the United States following the 2014 visit, Rodman spent three weeks at a New Jersey-based alcohol rehabilitation center, which he said was not about giving up drinking, but to "decompress from all things" he was going through.
In Tokyo, a visiting senior US official said Rodman is making the trip as a private citizen.
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His agent, Darren Prince, said Rodman had been drinking and was under pressure as he organized the Pyongyang exhibition game.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has worked for Warmbier's release with his Center for Global Engagement, said Warmbier has been in a coma for more than a year.
You'll recall that during one of his previous trips he told that press that only reason he needed to go meet with Kim was because "Obama can't do s***" about North Korea.
A senior U.S. government official wished Rodman well on his trip, while stressing that Americans are advised to avoid travel to North Korea for their own safety.
As NPR's Elise Hu reports from Seoul, the U.S. State Department has issued several warnings advising Americans not to travel to North Korea.
The North has occasionally jailed United States citizens on charges ranging from hostile acts to illegal entry, and released them only after visits by high-profile figures including former president Bill Clinton.
Early in the dictatorship of Kim Jong Un, North Korea called on its people to rally behind him and protect him as "human shields".
The former National Basketball Association star told the media he does not plan on discussing Americans who are now being held in North Korea.
North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies to overthrow its government to enable the USA -backed South Korean government to take control of the Korean Peninsula.
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