New York Times: "Trump Faces Fury After Saying He Believes North Korean Leader on Student’s Death."

Otto Warmbier

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Otto Warmbier
Born	Otto Frederick Warmbier December 12, 1994 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Died	June 19, 2017 (aged 22) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Education	University of Virginia
Detainment
Country	North Korea
Detained	January 2, 2016
Charge	Attempted theft
Sentence	15 years' imprisonment
Released	June 12, 2017
Time held	1 year, 5 months and 10 days

Otto Frederick Warmbier (December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 after being convicted of theft of a propaganda poster. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died soon after.

Warmbier had been traveling to Hong Kong for a study abroad program when he decided to visit North Korea on a guided tour at the end of December 2015. While there, he allegedly attempted to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel, for which he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment with hard labor.

Shortly after his sentencing in March 2016, Warmbier suffered a severe neurological injury from an unconfirmed cause and fell into a coma, lasting over a year.^[1] North Korean authorities did not disclose his medical condition until June 2017, when they announced he had fallen into a coma as a result of botulism and a sleeping pill. He was freed later that month, still in a comatose state after 17 months in captivity. He was repatriated to the United States, arriving in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 13, 2017. He was taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center for immediate evaluation and treatment, where physicians found no evidence of botulism.

Warmbier never regained consciousness and died on June 19, 2017, six days after his return to the United States when his parents had requested his feeding tube be removed.^[2] A coroner's report stated he died from an unknown injury causing lack of oxygen to the brain.^[3] Non-invasive internal scans did not find any signs of fractures to his skull.^[2]

In 2018, the North Korean government was held liable in a U.S. federal court for his torture and death after a default judgment in favor of Warmbier's parents.^[4] In 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump said he accepted the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that Kim did not know about Warmbier's situation at the time.^[5] Trump later said he held North Korea responsible for Warmbier's death. ^[6]