North Korea hospital slams Warmbier abuse claims

THE director of the North Korean hospital that treated Otto Warmbier, the US student who died after being held in the country, rejected fresh allegations that he was tortured in custody.

The 22-year-old was jailed in the North for more than a yea r a nd was released i n a comatose state i n 2017 but died shor t ly a f ter ret urning home.

The exact cause of his death r ema i n s u n k now n but a r e c e nt US med i a r e p or t cla imed t here was new ev idence that he was beaten by the regime.

T h e d i r e c t o r o f t h e Pyongyang Friendship Hospital – which treated Warmbier – slammed the claims as a “total distortion of the truth” in a statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency late Saturday.

“The American doctors who ca me to t he DPRK to help Wa r mbi e r ’s r e p a t r i a t i o n acknowledged that his health i ndicators were a l l nor mal a nd submit ted a let t er of assu ra nce to our hospita l,” it said.

“Now the question is: what is the ulterior motive of those American doctors trying to make a different story at this point in time with regard to the cause of Warmbier’s death,” the statement added.

The KCNA statement came hours after the Voice of America carried a report on a lawsuit f iled by Warmbier’s pare nt s a c c u s i ng t he Nor t h Korea n reg i me of tor t ur i ng and murdering their son.

The report cited Warmbier’s former dentists saying there was evidence of trauma to his teeth and a neurologist who treated him after his return from detention and said the student suffered “extensive” brain damage.

North Korea has denied torturing Warmbier and claims he cont racted bot u l ism i n detention.

Warmbier was arrested for stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel during a trip to North Korea and sentenced to 15 years of hard labour.

Af ter leng t hy negotiat ions bet ween Wash i ng ton a nd Pyong yang, he was released last year but died in less t han a week.

US President Donald Trump accused Pyongyang of brutally abusing the student but later praised the North’s leader Kim Jong Un as “very honourable” following a historic summit in Singapore in June.

Rights groups have criticised the rapid diplomatic thaw on the peninsula, saying it has overshadowed widespread human rights abuses rampant in North Korea.