Warmbier family asks NJ congressman to stop his Kim Jong Un resolution
A New Jersey congressman won’t introduce a resolution that would hold North Korean leader Kim Jong Un responsible for the death of Otto Warmbier after a request from the Warmbier family.
Rep. Tom Malinowksi, D-N.J., had planned to introduce the resolution this week but decided against it after speaking with the family, said spokeswoman Amanda Osborne in an email.
“Ultimately, the family decided they did not want the resolution to move forward, and the Congressman wants to respect their wishes,” Osborne said.
Malinowski proposed the resolution to rebuke President Donald Trump, who said after his summit with Kim that he doesn’t hold the North Korean leader responsible for the Ohio college student’s death.
The Warmbiers released a statement Friday morning holding the North Korean leader responsible. “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier said. “No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”
Trump said in a series of tweets he was being misinterpreted.
Otto Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, went to North Korea on a tourist vacation in late 2015 and was about to return in the first days of 2016 when he was arrested and charged with stealing a poster from a Pyongyang hotel. After a show trial, a North Korean court sentenced Warmbier to 15 years hard labor.
Immediately after the sentencing, however, no further word was heard from Warmbier. His parents pushed the Obama administration to win his release, but all efforts failed. When Trump took office, he sent an envoy to North Korea to bring Warmbier home. The Kim government released him as a humanitarian gesture.
Warmbier returned to Cincinnati in a state doctors diagnosed as “unresponsive wakefulness” that left him blind, paralyzed, bedridden and unable to communicate. Tests showed his brain had been starved of oxygen. He died at age 22, six days after his return to Cincinnati.