“That was an anomaly. Typically our prisoners and hostages and detainees get back more or less in one piece.”
One of the people responsible for securing Otto Warmbier’s release sided with President Donald Trump in his belief that North Korea leader Kim Jong Un wasn’t aware of the American’s condition.
On Thursday, former Israeli Defense Forces paratrooper Mickey Bergman, who negotiated for Warmbier’s release, told Fox & Friends First host Heather Childers that while Trump could have articulated his comments better, the crux of the statement was correct. He said what Trump likely meant to say was that Kim made an effort to tell the president that he didn’t know what led to the 22-year-old’s condition.
“I don’t believe they had any interest in Otto getting to the condition that he did and evidence that I have for this is it’s the only American prisoner to which it happened to,” Bergman said. “That was an anomaly. Typically our prisoners and hostages and detainees get back more or less in one piece.”
Bergman added that when Warmbier was returned to America, the negotiator’s North Korean counterparts made a point to tell him that they were unaware of the 22-year-old’s condition. He said they did so to ensure that Bergman didn’t think they negotiated in bad faith because they valued the relationship between the two countries.
