The family of Otto Warmbier, a student released by North Korea last week, announced that their son died, AP reports. Otto was sentenced to 15 years of forced labor in North Korea for destroying propaganda posters. He was released and returned to the United States last week, only when it was discovered he fell into a coma. He was in prison for 17 months. He was arrested in January 2016 in North Korea where he went as a tourist and was sentenced to 15 years of forced labor after admitting he attempted to steal one of the posters with a political slogan at the hotel in Pyongyang, where he was staying.
He was infected with botulism after the trial and was prescribed a sleeping medicine from which he fell into the coma.
Trump condemned the brutality
President Donald Trump condemned the brutality of the North Korean regime after a death of American student who was sentenced to 15 years in that country for removal of a propaganda poster. Trump promised to prevent such cases in the future. Trump said in a statement that he and his wife, Melania Trump, expressed condolences to the 22-year-old Otto Warmbier's family.
"The US once again condemns the brutality of the North Korean regime while we are sorry for its last victim," Trump's statement says. "Otto's fate is boosting my government's determination to prevent such tragedies in the future," Trump said.
US student Otto Warmbier, who was in jail in North Korea 17 months before returning to the US in a coma less than a week ago, died in a hospital in Cincinnati, his family said on Monday in a statement.
Stealing of propaganda poster
"Unfortunately, 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," the family said in a statement after Warmbier's death at 2.20 pm local time, at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
The family said Warmbier fell into a coma in March 2016 shortly after being sentenced to 15 years of forced labor in North Korea. He was arrested, according to North Korean media, in an attempt to steal an item with a propaganda slogan. North Korea has released Warmbier last week saying he is being released for "humanitarian reasons".
US Senator John McCain said: "Otto Warmbier, an American citizen, was killed by the Kim Jong regime. In the last year of his life, he has had a nightmare in which Korean people have been detained for 70 years." Former presidential candidate Marco Rubio called Otto's death a "state-run murder".
