An 85-year-old US veteran of the Korean war has been detained in North Korea since last month, his family has said.

Merrill Newman’s son Jeffrey told the San Jose Mercury News  on Wednesday that his father had been taken off a plane set to leave North Korea on 26 October without explanation.

Newman, from Palo Alto, California, was travelling with Bob Hamrdla, who was allowed to return.

Hamrdla said in a statement that “there has to be a terrible misunderstanding. I hope that the North Koreans will see this as a humanitarian matter and allow him to return to his family as soon as possible.” The US state department would not confirm the detention, and North Korea’s state media have yet to comment.

The detention comes about a year after North Korea detained another American. North Korea has detained at least six other Americans since 2009.

According to a newsletter at the Channing House retirement complex in Palo Alto, California, where Newman has lived with his wife, Lee, since 2011, Newman spent three years as an infantry officer in the Korean war.

Newman also took Korean language lessons in preparation for what he intended would be a 10-day trip to North Korea, accompanied by two local guides, according to another edition of the newsletter. “He’s always wanted to go to North Korea,” Jeffrey Newman told the Mercury News. “It’s been a lifelong thing.”

Read More: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/21/us-veteran-north-korea-detention-merrill-newman