US student dies after release from N Korean jail
THE US student released in a coma last week after serving nearly 18-months in detention in North Korea, Otto Warmbier, died on Monday, prompting President Donald Trump to slam the “brutal regime” in Pyongyang.
The 22-year-old was medically evacuated to the US 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.
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, a punishment US officials decried as far out of proportion to his alleged crime.
Trump slammed Pyongyang following news of his death. “It’s a brutal regime,” he said during a White House event. “Bad things happened but at least we got him home to his parents.”
In a separate written statement, Trump said, “Otto’s fate deepens my administration’s determination to prevent such tragedies from befalling innocent people at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency”.
Doctors last week revealed that Warmbier had suffered severe neurological injuries, and described him as being in a state of “unresponsive wakefulness”, opening his eyes and blinking, but showing no signs of understanding language or of being aware of his surroundings.
His family said that he appeared anguished when he first arrived home, but died “at peace”.
Kim Jong-Un’s regime claimed Warmbier fell into a coma soon after he was sentenced last year, saying the college student had contracted botulism and been given a sleeping pill. Medical tests carried out last week in the US offered no conclusive evidence as to the cause of his neurological injuries, and no evidence of a prior botulism infection.
Warmbier’s release came amid mounting tensions with Washington following a series of missile tests by Pyongyang, focusing attention on an arms build-up that Pentagon chief Jim Mattis has dubbed “a clear and present danger to all”.
Three more US citizens are currently being held by North Korea. Two were teachers at a Pyongyang university funded by overseas Christian groups, and the third a KoreanAmerican pastor who was accused of espionage for the South.
Following Warmbier’s death, the tour group that arranged his trip to North Korea said it would no longer take Americans into the isolated country. — AFP