N. Korea hits back over death of student
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA— North Korea accused the Trump administration on Thursday of exploiting the death of an Ohio student who died soon after being released from detention in the Asian nation.
Otto Warmbier, who was vacationing in North Korea, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in March 2016 for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster two months earlier. North Korea has said Warmbier fell into a coma that resulted from botulism and a sleeping pill.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson reiterated the country’s denial that it tortured the American, who was detained for more than a year and died soon after his release to the U.S. while still in a coma.
“We provided him with sincere medical care on humanitarian grounds in consideration of his failing health until he returned to the U.S.,” he said.
The statement expressed particular indignation that U.S. President Donald Trump had criticized North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.
“The fact that the old lunatic Trump and his riff-raff slandered the sacred dignity of our supreme leadership, using bogus data . . . only serves to redouble the surging hatred of our army and people towards the U.S.,” it said. Trump referenced Warmbier’s death in comments that were critical of North Korea during his debut speech to the UN General Assembly earlier this month.
Warmbier’s parents told a Fox News TV show Tuesday that North Korea tortured and “destroyed” him. Trump tweeted afterward: “Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea.” An Ohio coroner on Wednesday said her office was unable to determine what caused the brain damage that led to Warmbier’s death.