Otto Warmbier dies days after returning to the United States
Otto Warmbier, an American college student, was released after being imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months. Afterwards, he died a week later at the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre.
On January 2nd, 2016, Warmbier was arrested at the Pyongyang Airport for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel room. In a one-hour trial, he confessed to stealing the poster. For this reason, he served a 17-month prisoner’s sentence fulfilled with hard labour.
After the release, the university student was evacuated to the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre, where doctors quickly discovered that he had suffered from “severe injuries to all regions of the brain” and was in
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Vice President Mike Pence classified his death as “a tragic example of North Korea’s disregard for human life.”
Democratic senator Sherrod Brown stated, “The country’s despicable actions… must be condemned. The Warmbiers have had more to endure than any family should have to bear.”
At a public event on 16th June 2017, President Donald Trump took credit on behalf of his administration team for getting Otto Warmbier back, expressed his gratitude for Otto Warmbier’s arrival and called North Korea’s treatment a “brutal regime”.
In Donald Trump’s speech, he said, “Melania and I offer our deepest condolences to the family of Otto Warmbier on his untimely passing. There is nothing more tragic for a parent than to lose a child in the prime of life. Our thoughts and prayers are with Otto’s family and friends, and all who loved him.”
Later he added, “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