{"id":329911,"date":"2017-06-20T06:26:32","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T06:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=329911"},"modified":"2017-06-20T06:26:32","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T06:26:32","slug":"us-student-sent-home-from-north-korea-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/06\/us-student-sent-home-from-north-korea-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"US student sent home from North Korea dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The US student held in captivity for more than 15 months in North Korea has died a week after returning home.<\/p>\n<p>Otto Warmbier, 22, was serving 15 years hard labour, accused of attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel.<\/p>\n<p>He was returned to the US last Tuesday, with North Korea saying it was on humanitarian grounds.<\/p>\n<p>North Korea said he had been in a coma for a year after contracting botulism but his family say he was subjected to &#8220;awful torturous mistreatment&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A team of US doctors have also disputed North Korea&#8217;s version of events.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Warmbier had suffered severe brain damage, and was medically evacuated from North Korea on 13 June to a hospital in his home city of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is unclear how he fell ill.<\/p>\n<p>A statement from the family on Monday said: &#8220;It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home. Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2:20pm.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They said the student had been &#8220;unable to speak, unable to see and unable to react to verbal commands&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/15671\/production\/_96556678_ff599376-8b96-4728-ad96-6d4ea0a516ee.jpg\" alt=\"Otto Frederick Warmbier on 29 February 2016\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr class=\"story-body__line\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Timeline of events<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">30 Dec 2015 &#8211; Mr Warmbier travels from Beijing to Pyongyang with a tour group.<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">2 Jan 2016 &#8211; He is arrested at Pyongyang International Airport as he tries to leave the country. Later that month, North Korea announces it is holding Mr Warmbier for a &#8220;hostile act&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">16 March 2016 &#8211; Mr Warmbier <a class=\"story-body__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-35818581\">goes on trial in Pyongyang<\/a> where he confesses to stealing a propaganda poster, and is sentenced to 15 years of hard labour. He is believed to have slipped into a coma shortly after his trial.<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Early June 2017 &#8211; US officials and Mr Warmbier&#8217;s parents are told about his condition<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">13 June 2017 -He is released from North Korea and medically evacuated to the US. Doctors say he has suffered a severe brain injury.<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">19 June 2017 &#8211; Mr Warmbier dies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"story-body__line\" \/>\n<p>The economics student from the University of Virginia had travelled to North Korea as a tourist.<\/p>\n<p>A month after his arrest, he appeared at a news conference tearfully confessing to trying to take a sign from his hotel as a &#8220;trophy&#8221; for a US church.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign detainees in North Korea have previously recanted confessions, saying they were made under pressure.<\/p>\n<p>The company Mr Warmbier travelled with, China-based company Young Pioneer Tours, has announced it will no longer take visitors from the US to the country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The way his detention was handled was appalling and a tragedy like this must never be repeated,&#8221; it said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite constant requests, we were denied any opportunity to meet him or anyone in contact with him in Pyongyang, only receiving assurances that he was fine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;No sign of botulism&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>North Korea said last week that it had released Mr Warmbier &#8220;on humanitarian grounds&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly before he was freed, his parents told the Washington Post newspaper they had been informed by the North Korean authorities that their son had contracted botulism, a rare illness that causes paralysis, soon after his trial.<\/p>\n<p>He was given a sleeping pill and had been in a coma ever since, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n<p>But a team of doctors assessing him in Cincinnati said they had found &#8220;no sign of botulism&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Doctors confirmed that there was no sign he had been physically abused during his detention, based on scans.<\/p>\n<p>They believe respiratory arrest led to his condition, which is caused by a lack of oxygen and blood in the brain.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump said Mr Warmbier&#8217;s death had deepened his administration&#8217;s resolve &#8220;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&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The United States once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim,&#8221; the presidential statement added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US student held in captivity for more than 15 months in North Korea has died a week after returning home. Otto Warmbier, 22, was serving 15 years hard labour, accused of attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel. He was returned to the US last Tuesday, with North Korea saying it was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[160,8388,8389],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US student sent home from North Korea dies - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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