Warmbier dies six days after arriving home
Trump slams ‘brutal’ Pyongyang regime
SEOUL: Otto Warmbier, the US student released in a coma last week after nearly 18 months in detention in North Korea, 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.
The University of Virginia student was accused of trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting with a tour group and was convicted of subversion. 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 in March 2016 to 15 years in prison with hard labour, a punishment the US decried as far out of proportion to his alleged crime.
Mr Trump lashed out at 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, Mr 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.
“The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim.”
Doctors last week revealed 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.
Unresponsive wakefulness is a new medical term for 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.
His family said on Monday that he first 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 doctors said he had suffered extensive tissue loss in all regions of his brain, but showed no signs of physical trauma.
They said that given his young age, Warmbier’s severe brain injury was most likely caused by cardiopulmonary arrest cutting the blood supply to the brain.
The death was the end of a wrenching ordeal for the Warmbier family, and is likely to worsen the already tense relations between the US and North Korea, which technically remain in a state of war dating to the armistice that halted the 1950-53 Korean War.
Former Gov Bill Richardson of New Mexico, an expert on North Korea who has helped free other Americans held there, said in an interview on Monday he had met with North Korean diplomats 20 times while Warmbier was being held, and that they had never hinted that anything was amiss with Warmbier’s health.
Mr Richardson called on the North to release the three other Americans it is holding, as well as a Canadian hostage, and to “disclose what happened to Otto, fully, to the international community”.
Warmbier’s release came amid mounting tensions with Washington following a series of missile tests by Pyongyang, focusing attention on an arms buildup that Pentagon chief Jim Mattis has dubbed “a clear and present danger to all”.
The young man’s death also brought attention to North Korea’s human rights record. A Washington-based rights group tied Warmbier’s fate to many others “starved, tortured, brutalised and killed in North Korea’s political prison camps”.
“Millions of unknown North Koreans are subjected to the brutality of the Kim regime,” the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said in a statement.
Warmbier’s father, Fred, lashed out at North Korea last week, telling a news conference, “there is no excuse for any civilised nation to have kept his condition secret and denied him top-notch medical care for so long”.
Warmbier’s family said they believed the young man had found a peace of sorts after being flown home.
“When Otto returned to Cincinnati late on June 13th he was unable to speak, unable to see and unable to react to verbal commands. He looked very uncomfortable — almost anguished,” they said. “Although we would never hear his voice again, within a day the countenance of his face changed — he was at peace. He was home and we believe he could sense that.”