Otto Warmbier probably wasn't tortured while in North Korea, GQ magazine reports
CLOSE
An Ohio coroner said her office lacks evidence to make any conclusions on what led to the fatal brain damage in the death of 22-year-old college student Otto Warmbier. Warmbier had been detained in North Korea for more than a year. (Sept. 27)
AP
CINCINNATI – A new report on the last days of college student Otto Warmbier’s life says Warmbier most likely was not tortured during his 15 months in North Korean captivity. The report says Warmbier may have suffered the brain damage that ultimately killed him immediately after his trial.
The report from GQ magazine also suggests the Trump administration promoted the idea that Warmbier had been physically tortured as part of its drumbeat of war against the isolated Asian nation last year. But once President Donald Trump secured a summit meeting in June with North Korea’s leader, “The story of Otto being brutally beaten had outlived its usefulness.â€
GQ published the account, “The Untold Story of Otto Warmbier, American Hostage,†by writer Doug Bock Clark, online Monday. The story will run in the magazine’s August print edition.
June 12: Otto Warmbier’s parents: ‘Hopefully something positive’ will come of Trump-Kim summit
June 12: Trump on Otto Warmbier: ‘Otto did not die in vain’
When the June summit was scheduled, Clark reported, “The White House no longer focused on Otto’s tragedy. In fact, it swung so far in the opposite direction that civil-rights groups complained about human-rights issues not being on the agenda for the summit in Singapore.â€
The Warmbiers have yet to respond to a request for comment on the GQ story made through their lawyers.Â
Otto Warmbier was attending the University of Virginia when he bought a package tour to visit North Korea in late 2015. As he was about to board his return flight, North Korean authorities charged him with stealing a poster from a hotel. He was tried and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016. He was 21.
Nothing more was heard from him until June 2017, when the Trump administration negotiated his release. By then U.S. officials had learned Warmbier had been in a state of unresponsive wakefulness for more than a year. Once back in Cincinnati, doctors found Warmbier had suffered severe brain damage from which he would never recover. He died six days after he returned to Cincinnati.Â
April 26: Warmbier family sues North Korean government, alleging regime tortured and murdered their son Otto
Jan. 30: Trump to Otto Warmbier family: ‘You are powerful witnesses to a menace that threatens our world’
Clark reported that in that time, The New York Times published an account claiming that Warmbier had been physically tortured, citing an unnamed American official. But Clark said no evidence has surfaced since to support that version of events. Warmbier’s parents sued the North Korean government in April repeating the accusations that Warmbier had been tortured.
Clark found that Warmbier suffered the brain damage immediately after he had been sentenced. Clark quotes an American doctor, Michael Flueckiger, who went to North Korea with American officials seeking Warmbier’s release. Flueckiger said staff members at the hospital where Warmbier was treated told him he arrived there the morning after the trial in an unresponsive condition.
Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy who helped free Warmbier, said in the GQ story, “The doctors were clear that he had been brought to the hospital within a day of his trial, and that he had been in that same room until I saw him.â€
Follow Anne Saker on Twitter: @apsaker
Dec. 25: Death of student after detention further strained U.S.-North Korean relationship
Oct. 4: Otto Warmbier’s parents push lawmakers, White House for North Korea terror designation
Sept. 26: What ‘destroyed’ Otto Warmbier? Coroner’s report only deepens mystery
Posted!
1 of 22
2 of 22
3 of 22
4 of 22
5 of 22
6 of 22
7 of 22
8 of 22
9 of 22
10 of 22
11 of 22
12 of 22
13 of 22
14 of 22
15 of 22
16 of 22
17 of 22
18 of 22
19 of 22
20 of 22
21 of 22
22 of 22