Trump accepts Kim’s ‘word’ in Warmbier’s 2017 death
HANOI, Vietnam — President Donald Trump on Thursday defended North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the death of American college student Otto Warmbier, whose family says he was “brutally tortured” while imprisoned in North Korea and died in 2017 after being flown back to United States in a coma.
Trump condemned the “brutality of the North Korean regime” following Warmbier’s death at age 22, but he took a softer stance toward Kim at the conclusion of their second summit.
“I don’t believe he would have allowed that to happen,” Trump said. “It just wasn’t to his advantage to allow that to happen.”
Trump said that he spoke to Kim about the death of Warmbier — whose family has called it a murder — and that Kim “feels badly about it.” He said the North Korea leader, who rules the country with an iron grip, knew about the case but learned about it only after the fact because, Trump suggested, “top leadership” might not have been involved.
“He tells me he didn’t know about it, and I take him at his word,” Trump said.
Richard Cullen, the attorney for Fred and Cindy Warmbier, who in December won a $501 million judgment against North Korea for the death of their son, said the couple will probably not say anything publicly about Trump’s comment.
Trump’s remarks about Warmbier and Kim drew bipartisan criticism.
Rick Santorum, a former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, said that Trump’s acceptance of Kim’s denial of responsibility was “reprehensible.”
“He gave cover, as you said, to a leader who knew very well what was going on with Otto Warmbier,” Santorum said on CNN.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House intelligence committee, tweeted that Trump’s remark was “detestable.”
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student from Ohio, was detained in Pyongyang after participating in an organized tour in December 2015 and was held for 17 months, after being charged with spying and making an on-camera confession. It was unclear whether his confession was voluntary or coerced. Warmbier was released in June 2017 and returned to his hometown of Cincinnati in a coma. He died a few days later.