Warmbier marks the first time that a US citizen has died from injuries sustained during captivity in North Korea after returning to the US
Just days after returning home after more than a year in North Korean captivity, Otto Warmbier died today from injuries sustained during his time in Pyongyang. Now the question is what, if anything, the US will do in response. Warmber’s death today marks the first time that a US citizen has died from injuries sustained under North Korea after returning to the US. There’s likely to be pressure on the Trump administration to respond, but at least for now, there has been no official White House comment. According to preliminary reports from the, President Trump response to the news was “ ‘Bad things’ happened in ‘brutal’ North Korea but at least American died at home with parents.” In a statement released today, Warmbier’s family thanked the medical professionals at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for tending to him. “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, ” they wrote. Warmbier had spent 18 months imprisoned in North Korea after supposedly trying to from a hotel during a guided tour of the country. Medical professionals said during that time, he suffered extensive brain damage that left him in a comatose state. At the time of his return last Monday, Warmbier was in a state of and was unable to speak, see or respond to verbal commands, said medical professionals from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in a. It’s still not clear what caused Warmbier’s injuries. The official North Korean statement was that he had suffered a bout of severe stomach flu called botulism, though medical professionals have said there is no evidence to suggest this. Experts say it’s for North Korea to torture foreign prisoners like Warmbier, but it is unprecedented to inflict injuries of this degree, especially to a US citizen. “Otto was terrorized and brutalized for 18 months by a pariah regime in North Korea, ” said Warmbier’s father, Fred Warmbier, in a last week. The statement from the Warmbier family is available in full here:
