Parents rebuke Trump for defending ‘evil’ dictator
US President Donald Trump has sparred publicly with the parents of Otto Warmbier after they rebuked him for holding North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un blameless in their son’s death following 17 months in captivity, as growing tensions between them burst into an open feud.
Hours after Fred and Cindy Warmbier issued an emotional statement yesterday that directly accused Kim and his ‘‘evil regime’’ of killing their son in 2017, Trump asserted in a pair of tweets that his views had been ‘‘misinterpreted’’ when he defended Kim at a news conference a day earlier in Hanoi.
Trump had said, in response to a question from a Washington Post reporter, that Kim felt ‘‘very badly’’ about Warmbier’s death, and that he took the authoritarian leader ‘‘at his word’’ that he was unaware of the college student’s abusive treatment.
‘‘Of course I hold North Korea responsible for Otto’s mistreatment and death,’’ Trump wrote on Twitter, without mentioning Kim. He blamed the Obama administration for not doing more to secure Warmbier’s release, and said Warmbier ‘‘will not have died in vain’’, as the president continued to negotiate with Pyongyang.
‘‘Otto and his family have become a tremendous symbol of strong passion and strength, which will last for many years into the future,’’ Trump wrote. ‘‘I love Otto and think of him often.’’
Trump’s effort at political damage control came after the Warmbiers said they felt compelled to speak out, after maintaining a relatively low profile out of respect for the president’s sensitive negotiations with Kim, including summits in Singapore last June and in Hanoi this week.
Trump called the family several times during that period, and US Vice-President Mike Pence also maintained contact with them. The Warmbiers were among the guests of US First Lady Melania Trump at the 2018 State of the Union address, during which Donald Trump cited their son’s death to highlight the cruelty of Kim’s regime.
But the Warmbiers have been growing increasingly exasperated with Trump’s embrace of Kim since their first meeting in Singapore, according to a person with close ties to the family.
‘‘Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto,’’ the Warmbiers said in their statement yesterday. ‘‘Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuse or lavish praise can change that.’’
Foreign policy experts said it was unfathomable that Kim would be unaware of the treatment of a high-profile American hostage such as Warmbier.
– Washington Post