The former State Department Special Representative for North Korea said Monday that he signed an agreement to pay North Korea for the release of Otto Warmbier.
Joseph Yun told CNN on Monday that he signed the $2 million agreement in 2017 with the approval of then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to get the American student back to the U.S. from North Korean custody.
'As soon as North Korea side told me that this bill for $2 million would have to be paid ... I contacted my boss then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,' Yun said, noting that Tillerson 'got back to me very quickly thereafter to say yes, go ahead and sign.'
Yun also said he was under the impression that President Donald Trump had signed off on Tillerson's decision to sign the agreement to pay North Korea for the 'care' of Warmbier.
'That was my understanding. I never asked him, but that was my understanding,' the former special representative said when asked if he thought Tillerson had Trump's approval.
Former State Department Special Representative for North Korea Joseph Yun said he signed a $2 million agreement, with approval from then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, for the release of now-deceased American student Otto Warmbier
Warmbier was arrested in 2015 for taking propaganda from the wall of a North Korean hotel when he was visiting to celebrate New Years Eve while he was studying abroad in Hong Kong. He mysteriously fell int o a coma on the day that he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea
President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday that he didn't pay North Korea for Warmbier's release. There are conflicting reports on whether the $2 million bill has been paid
Trump said Friday his administration had not paid North Korea ransom for Warmbier.
'No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else,' Trump wrote Friday.
Warmier became ill while in North Korean custody and was returned to the U.S. in a comatose state – died a few days later.
Warmbier arrested in North Korea in 2015 while completing a study abroad program in Hong Kong. He was part of a group that included ten other Americans who were celebrating New Year's Eve in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Warmbier took down a propaganda poster from the wall of his hotel, which
