North Korea gave the United States a $2 million bill to cover its expenses for the care of comatose Otto Warmbier (pictured), who died shortly after being returned to his home in Ohio after being held in detention in North Korea
North Korea gave the United States a $2 million bill to cover its expenses for the care of comatose Otto Warmbier, who died shortly after being returned to his home in Ohio after being held in detention in North Korea.
An invoice was handed to a State Department envoy hours before Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was flown out of Pyongyang in June 2017, two people familiar with the matter reportedly told the Washington Post.
There are conflicting reports as to whether the bill was paid, with the White House declining comment and President Donald Trump saying as recently as September 30 that his administration paid 'nothing' to get American 'hostages' out of North Korea.
Warmbier mysteriously fell int o a coma on the day that he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea during a 2016 sightseeing trip gone wrong, and died days after he was released into US custody in 2017.
An Ohio coroner said Warmbier died from a lack of oxygen and blood to the brain. Pyongyang blamed botulism and ingestion of a sleeping pill and dismissed torture claims.
Barack Obama was president at the time of Otto Warmbier's incarceration and his State Department was not successful in freeing him.
Months after Obama left office, North Korea agreed to release the student, who arrived home in a vegetative state,
Warmbier mysteriously fell int o a coma on the day that he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea during a 2016 sightseeing trip gone wrong, and died days after he was released into US custody in 2017. An Ohio coroner said Warmbier died from a lack of oxygen and blood to the brain. Pyongyang blamed botulism and ingestion of a sleeping pill and dismissed torture claims. Warmbier is shown in custody in North Korea
Otto’s father, Fred Warmbier, said that he had not been informed about any hospital bill and that it sounded like a 'ransom' for his late son.
The invoice was reporteldy handed to State Department envoy Joseph Yun hours before Warmbier was flown out of Pyongyang in a coma on June 13, 2017.
The White House would not provide comment, with press secretary Sarah Sanders stating over email, 'We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.'
Yun also told Reuters he could not comment on diplomatic exchanges. But in an interview with CNN on Thursday, he said he was given broad orders to secure Warmbier's release and that he understood the instructions came directly from Trump.
'Yes, my orders were completely: do whatever you can to get Otto back,' he told CNN, adding that he worked closely with then U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Yun added that it was his understanding that in previous releases of U.S. prisoners, money had been exchanged and was justified as 'hospital costs,' but he gave no further details.
Scans of Warmbier's brain before his death revealed extensive brain damage associated with an unexplained trauma that American neurosurgeons were not able to pinpoint.
Warmbier died on June 19, 2017, in Cincinnati at the age of 22 after his parents made the decision to remove his feeding tube.
Otto’s father, Fred Warmbier, said that he had not been informed about any hospital bill and that it sounded like a 'ransom' for his late son. The Parents of Otto Warmbier, Fred and Cindy Warmbier are acknowledged during the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives January 30, 2018
Warmbier traveled to North Korea from China while completing a study abroad program in Hong Kong at the end of 2015, as part of a tour group that included ten other Americans.
The group celebrated New Year's Eve in Pyongyang, and at some point during the stay, Warmbier took down a propaganda poster from the wall of his hotel that he planned to take home as a souvenir.
He was arrested at Pyongyang airport shortly after, before tearfully confessing on North Korean television that he had taken the poster after six weeks in detention.
A court sentenced Warmbier to 15 years
