North Korea has asked the United States for two million dollars in 2017 for Otto Warmbier's hospitalization expenses as a condition for the repatriation of the comatose American kidnapped during his detention in Pyongyang, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. . The North Korean regime has signed a pledge of payment to the American emissary responsible for bringing back the student, who died in June 2017 at the age of 22 shortly after his return to the United States, the daily said. , citing two sources close to the file.
Fallen into a coma in prison
The bill was not paid in 2017, said these sources, without saying if it had been since or if this payment had been discussed at the two summits between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong One. The White House declined to comment on the Washington Post's claims: "We do not comment in hostage cases, that's why they were successful under this administration," he said. the spokeswoman for the presidency, Sarah Sanders.
A student at the University of Virginia, Otto Warmbier was arrested in Pyongyang in January 2016 on a tour. He was sentenced in March following 15 years of forced labor for the theft of a propaganda poster before being released in June 2017 while he was in a coma. The exact cause of his death remains unknown, but the US court concluded in December 2018 that the student had been tortured while in detention, and sentenced the Pyongyang regime to $ 501 million in damages. North Korea denied any abuse, saying Otto Warmbier had contracted botulism in prison.