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Post by Admin on Mar 1, 2019 17:59:30 GMT
The parents of Otto Warmbier issued a blistering statement Friday saying Kim Jong Un and his government "are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity" after President Donald Trump asserted that the North Korean dictator had been unaware of the harrowing treatment the student endured while detained there. "We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto," Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement. "Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that." Warmbier was arrested for taking a propaganda banner from a hotel while on a visit to Pyongyang in January 2016. The University of Virginia student from Ohio was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, but was released after 17 months. Warmbier, 22, died shortly after he returned to the United States. His parents were told he had been in a coma since not long after he was sentenced. When he was brought back to Cincinnati after his release, his father said he "was jerking violently, making these inhuman sounds.” I did speak to [Kim about Warmbier]. He felt very badly. He knew the case very well, but he knew it later. And, you know, you got a lot of people — big country, lot of people. And in those prisons and those camps, you have a lot of people. And some really bad things happened to Otto. Some really, really bad things. But he tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.
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Post by Admin on Mar 2, 2019 23:37:33 GMT
President Donald Trump can be shamed into (kind of) walking back comments that reflect kindly on known tyrants — all it takes is resounding criticism that overshadows any of his related accomplishments.
After receiving widespread negative coverage of comments he made earlier this week appearing to absolve North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in the death of Otto Warmbier, a US student who died after being imprisoned in North Korea for over a year, Trump said Friday he was “misinterpreted.”
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was traveling through North Korea in late 2015 when he was detained and accused of stealing a propaganda poster. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. The Trump administration was able to secure his return home in 2017, but he arrived in a severe coma. As Vox reported at the time, “although many have speculated that Warmbier was tortured, leaving him unable to speak, see, or respond to verbal commands, there is no medical evidence proving physical abuse.”
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Post by Admin on Apr 26, 2019 17:35:37 GMT
President Donald Trump approved the payment of a $2 million bill presented by North Korea to cover its care of comatose American Otto Warmbier, a college student who died shortly after being returned home from 17 months in a North Korean prison, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. The Post said an invoice was handed to State Department envoy Joseph Yun hours before Warmbier, 22, was flown out of Pyongyang in a coma on June 13, 2017. Warmbier died six days later. Yun, when asked for comment, said in an email "I cannot comment/confirm on diplomatic exchanges." The U.S. envoy, who was sent to retrieve Warmbier, signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions passed down from Trump, the Post reported, citing two unidentified people familiar with the situation. “We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told Reuters.
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Post by Admin on May 3, 2019 18:05:24 GMT
Cindy Warmbier, the mother of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was detained in North Korea before his death, called the country a "cancer" on Friday. “North Korea, to me, is a cancer on the Earth,” Warmbier said while speaking at a Hudson Institute event. "If we ignore this cancer, it’s not going to go away, it’s going to kill all of us," she added. Warmbier also said the only way the nation will ever change is if the U.S. keeps up its pressure on Pyongyang, comparing North Korean prison camps to "concentration camps." "The only difference between Hitler and [North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un] is that he's doing it to all of his people," she said.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2019 19:59:22 GMT
The father of American college student Otto Warmbier, who died soon after being sent home from North Korea in a vegetative state, said Friday that Kim Jong Un should be called 'criminal Kim' not 'chairman Kim,' which 'makes me sick.' Fred Warmbier labelled the North Korean leader 'a criminal and a murderer', saying that 'every member of his regime is a thug'. Warmbier Sr. told a U.N. symposium promoting international cooperation on abductions that calling the North Korean leader 'chairman' gives him status on the world stage. He urged the world's nations not 'to coddle' Kim but 'to stand up to North Korea', adding: 'If we're afraid to tell the truth of who we're dealing with we don't stand a chance of making a difference.'
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