American held in NK goes home in a coma
Print Edition
AN American college student who was released from a North Korean prison is finally home but in a coma and undergoing treatment at an Ohio hospital.
He was taken there soon after arriving on United States soil. A plane carrying Otto Warmbier, who is from Ohio, landed in Cincinnati on Tuesday. The 22-year-old was then taken by ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
Warmbier was serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor in North Korea for alleged anti-state acts.
Securing Warmbier’s release “was a big priority” for President Donald Trump, who worked “very hard and very closely” with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
While North Korea’s move to free Warmbier could provide an opening for talks on security issues, the prospects still appear bleak. International negotiations on the dispute over North Korea’s nuclear program have been in limbo for years, as the US cranks up economic sanctions and North Korea won’t give up weapons it considers a guarantee against invasion.
Warmbier was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial in North Korea’s Supreme Court in March 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for subversion after he tearfully confessed that he had tried to steal a propaganda banner.
Warmbier’s parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, said they were told he has been in a coma since his trial, when he was last seen in public, and they had learned of this only one week ago.
Warmbier’s release came during a visit to North Korea by former American basketball star Dennis Rodman.
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