CINCINNATI – There’s been little public word about what has happened to an American college student detained by North Korea, as a new administration takes over one year later amid deep U. S. concerns about the hostile country’s nuclear arms and missile development.
North Korea announced last Jan. 22 it had detained Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, for alleged anti-state crime. Warmbier was sentenced in March to 15 years in prison at hard labor after a televised public confession to trying to steal a propaganda banner.