American freed from N. Korea dies at 22

CINCINNATI — Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was released by North Korea in a coma last week after almost a year and a half in captivity, died Monday, his family said.

The 22- year- old “has completed his journey home,” relatives said in a statement. They did not cite a specific cause of death.

“Unfortunately, the awful, torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced

today,” his parents said.

Several U.S. officials offered their support for the Warmbiers while condemning North Korea’s government, which President Donald Trump called a “brutal regime.”

Doctors had described Otto Warmbier’s condition as a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” and said he suffered a “severe neurological injury” of unknown cause.

Fred Warmbier said last week that he believed his son had been fighting for months to stay alive to return to his family. The family’s statement Monday said the younger Warmbier looked uncomfortable and anguished after arriving June 13, but that his countenance later changed.

“He was peace. He was home, and we believe he could sense that,” they said.

Warmbier was convicted of subversion for allegedly trying to steal a North Korean propaganda banner while visiting with a tour group. He was put before North Korean officials and journalists for a televised “confession.”

“I have made the worst mistake of my life,” he exclaimed, choking up as he begged to be allowed to reunite with his parents and two younger siblings. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor.

The University of Virginia student from Wyoming, Ohio, was held for more than 17 months. His family said they were told that he had been in a coma since soon after his March 2016 sentencing.

Doctors said he suffered extensive loss of brain tissue and “profound weakness and contraction” of his muscles. His eyes opened and blinked, but without any sign that he understood verbal commands or his surroundings.

Unresponsive wakefulness is a new medical term for a persistent vegetative state. Patients in this condition who have survived a coma can open their eyes, but they do not respond to commands. People can live in a state of unresponsive wakefulness for many years with the chances of recovery depending on the extent of the brain injury.

North Korea said Warmbier went into a coma after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill, but doctors in Cincinnati said they found no active sign of botulism or evidence of beatings.

Fred Warmbier praised Trump’s administration. He was critical of the approach to his son’s situation taken by former President Barack Obama’s administration.

“At least he got home to his parents,” Trump said during a Monday event with technology executives at the White House, speaking just hours after Warmbier died.

Warmbier, a onetime high school soccer player and homecoming king, was traveling in China in December 2015 when he signed up for a five-day tour of North Korea with a Chinese company that advertised “budget travel to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from.”

He was detained at the Pyongyang airport in early January 2016, charged with a “hostile act” against the country’s authoritarian government and convicted less than two months later. His trial lasted an hour.

The State Department warns against travel to North Korea. While nearly all Americans who have been there have left without incident, visitors can be suddenly seized and face lengthy incarceration for what might seem like minor infractions.

Jeffrey Fowle, also from Ohio, was detained in 2014

when he intentionally left a Bible in a nightclub. Fowle was freed after six months. He said he was kept isolated most of the time but was not physically abused. He and others freed from North Korea have said they were coached and coerced into giving confessions.

Three Americans remain in captivity in North Korea. The U.S. government accuses North Korea of using such detainees as political pawns, and North Korea accuses Washington and South Korea of sending spies to overthrow its government.

TENSE RELATIONS

Relations between the United States and the North have worsened in recent months as North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, threatens to attack the United States with nuclear weapons.

Shortly after Trump made his public remarks on Warmbier’s death, he issued a terse statement.

“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,” Trump said in the statement. “The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.”

Trump’s Cabinet describes North Korea as the biggest threat the U.S. faces. While officials have reacted to past provocations with alarm and

have warned that the U. S. will consider all options in response to North Korea’s defiance, they’ve focused on nonmilitary actions so far, such as enlisting China’s help to tighten the screws on the country.

“We hold North Korea accountable for Otto Warmbier’s unjust imprisonment, and demand the release of three other Americans who have been illegally detained,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.

An analyst said Warmbier’s death could chill attempts to restart communications with North Korea.

Professor Moon Chung-in, who serves as an adviser to Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s newly elected president, cited the Warmbier case as one reason Moon Jae-in was moving cautiously with Pyongyang.

“Otto Warmbier had this tragic return. Therefore, the atmosphere in Washington is extremely hostile against North Korea,” said Moon Chung-in, who spoke at New York’s Asia Society on Monday morning, before Warmbier’s death was announced. “With this kind of behavior, it would be extremely difficult for President Moon to consider going to Pyongyang or have any meaningful interaction with North Korea.”

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who worked to try to free Warmbier, said in a statement Monday afternoon that Warmbier was “a promising young man” and

that his passing “is a loss for Ohio and for all of us.”

Gov. John Kasich said in a written statement: “All Ohioans mourn the death of Otto Warmbier, a young man of exceptional spirit. Our prayers go out to his family, who have shown great strength and courage throughout this terrible ordeal. This horrendous situation further underscores the evil, oppressive nature of the North Korean regime that has such disregard for human life.”

Teresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, where Warmbier’s class graduated last month, said by phone Monday afternoon: “It’s just such a waste of a promising young life. That’s very hard — that’s very hard to accept.

“I feel so sorry for his classmates and his fraternity brothers. He had many friends at the university, professors who taught him, I think everyone feels, very deeply, this loss.

“I think we always somewhere, deep down, thought he would come back to us and finish his degree with us.”

Doctors had described Otto Warmbier’s condition as a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” and said he suffered a “severe neurological injury” of unknown cause.