An American student visiting North Korea
Church member wanted memento, U.S. student says
got accused of trying to steal a political banner at his hotel, then was presented to the North Korean media.
PYONGYANG, North Korea — A detained American student was presented to North Korean media on Monday in Pyongyang, where he tearfully apologized for trying to steal a political banner from a staff-only section of the hotel where he had been staying.
He said he did it for a church member back home who wanted it as a “trophy.”
North Korea announced in late January it had arrested Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student. It said that after entering the country as a tourist, he committed an anti-state crime with “the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation.”
No details of charges or punishment Warmbier faces were released.
According to Warm- bier’s statement Monday, he wanted the banner with a political slogan on it as a trophy for the church member, who was the mother of a friend.
He was arrested while visiting the country with Young Pioneer Tours, an agency specializing in travel to North Korea.
He had been staying at the Yanggakdo International Hotel, on an island in a river that runs through Pyongyang, the capital.
Warmbier said he was offered a used car worth $10,000 by a member of the church. He said the church member told him the slogan would be hung on its wall as a trophy.
He also said he was told that if he was detained and didn’t return, $200,000 would be paid to his mother in the form of a charitable donation.
Warmbier identified the church as the Friendship United Methodist Church, in his hometown, Wyoming, Ohio.
Meshach Kanyion, pastor of the church, would not confirm whether he knows Warmbier.
Warmbier’s parents said they had not heard from their son since his arrest and were greatly relieved to see a picture of him.
“You can imagine how deeply worried we were and what a traumatic experience this has been for us,” Warmbier’s father, Fred Warmbier, said in a statement provided by the University of Virginia.
Warmbier told reporters in Pyongyang that he had also been encouraged in his act by the university’s “Z Society,” which he said he was trying to join.
The magazine of the university’s alumni association describes the Z Society as a “semi-secret ring society” that was founded in 1892 and conducts philanthropy, puts on honorary dinners and grants academic awards.
Warmbier said he accepted the offer of money because his family is “suffering from very severe financial difficulties.”
“I started to consider this as my only golden opportunity to earn money,” he said, adding if he mentioned the involvement of the church, “no payments would come.”