North Korea Says Otto Warmbier Was Released on ‘Humanitarian Grounds’
Then last week, North Korean diplomats at the United Nations told Mr. Yun that Mr. Warmbier had been in a coma for more than a year.
The North’s terse announcement on Thursday served to highlight many other unanswered questions about Mr. Warmbier, such as
why North Korea kept his medical condition from United States officials for so long and why it decided to release him.
If the North intended Mr. Warmbier’s release as a diplomatic overture toward Washington, whether
it leads to broader talks would depend on Mr. Warmbier’s condition, analysts said.
By CHOE SANG-HUNJUNE 15, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Thursday that it had freed the American college student Otto F. Warmbier on "humanitarian grounds"
but did not reveal any details of his medical condition or the diplomatic negotiations that led to his release.
Moon said that Otto has been terrorized and brutalized for 18 months by a pariah regime in North Korea.
After he was held for more than a year in North Korea, Mr. Warmbier, 22, was flown from
Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, to Ohio, his home state, in a coma on Tuesday.