In 2016, American college student, Otto Frederick Warmbier, had been thrown in prison by North Korea( and its dictator, Kim Jong Un, according to reports), with a conviction of theft of a propaganda poster. It was not until June 2017 that the U.S government secured Warmbier’s release.
Upon his release, Warmbier returned to the United States in deathly physical condition and was declared dead on June 19, 2017. He was blind, deaf, and never regained consciousness.
To exacerbate matters, President Donald Trump returned from a summit with the North Korean leader on Thursday and made a statement that absolved Kim Jong Un from any involvement in Warmbier’s death.
“He felt badly about it. He felt very badly,” Trump said at a news conference, telling the press that he had in fact spoken with Kim and determined that Kim was never aware of Warmbier’s treatment. “He tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.”
Warmbier’s family expressed shock at the suggestion that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, could ever be innocent in the matter of their son’s death. The family released a statement Friday:
“We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier–Otto’s parents–wrote in a statement, the day following Trump’s return from Vietnam, where Trump had met for a summit with Kim and failed to reach a deal over US sanctions and nuclear weapons. “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”
Trump’s statement in support of dictator Kim, stands in very sharp contrast to a judge’s past ruling that North Korea had been liable for Warmbier’s death, in a symbolic court case. The case had included filings about Warmbier’s physical state, including details of his torture at the hands of the North Koreans, possible electric shock to his body, and severe brain damage. Otto Warmbier had indeed been released after being shackled in a North Korean prison for more than a year, but he had returned to his family in Ohio in a vegetative state and had been pronounced dead, six days later in Cincinnati.
Even Trump’s fellow Republicans rebuked Trump after Trump’s failure to blame Kim for Warmbier’s death.
It is clear in the Warmbier family statement that the family does not mention Trump by name, but, at the same time, they do not mince words about what they believe Kim and the North Korean dictatorship did to their son.
Their now aggressive stance can also be clearly contrasted with their previous relationship with Trump. Before this admonishing family statement, Otto’s brother and sister had been invited as guests of Trump to the latter’s first State of the Union address, back in 2018:
During Trump’s speech at that State of the Union, Trump had also sung a slightly different tune about North Korea and the death of Otto Warmbier. “You are powerful witnesses to a menace that threatens our world,” Trump had stated during his speech.
Two weeks afterwards, Fred Warmbier had accompanied the vice-president, Mike Pence, to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Now, relationships have turned sour through this entire ordeal: Trump’s relationship with the Republican party, whose members have vocally rebuked his support of Kim, Trump’s relationship with the Warmbiers, and Trump’s unsuccessful attempts at talks with North Korea.