US student dies after release from N. Korea

Chicago, June 20: Otto Warmbier, the US student released in a coma last week after nearly 18 months in detention in North Korea, died on Tuesday prompting President Donald Trump to slam the “brutal regime” in Pyongyang.

The 22-year-old was medically evacuated to the United States last Tuesday, suffering from severe brain damage. He died six days later surrounded by relatives in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

“The awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible,” the family said in a statement announcing Warmbier's death.

Mr Trump called Warmbier’s death a “total disgrace” and said the student should have been brought back to the United States sooner.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In said the North bears responsibility for the death of Warmbier, and described its regime as irrational.

Meanwhile, the US flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday in a show of force against North Korea, South Korean officials said.

The US often sends powerful warplanes in times of heightened animosities with North Korea, and flew B-1B bombers several times this year as the North conducted a series of banned ballistic missile tests.

Tuesday’s flights by B1Bs came shortly after Warmbier’s death. — AFP

OTTO WARMBIER was on a tourist trip when he was arrested and sentenced in March last year to 15 years hard labour for stealing a political poster from a North Korean hotel.