An American court has ruled the family of Otto Warmbier are owed in excess of 500 million dollars by Pyeongyang.
The ruling, issued by the District Court for the District of Columbia, comes more than a year and a half after the student died shortly after being returned to the U.S. in a comatose state following his imprisonment in North Korea.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier, the parents of Otto, expressed thanks to Chief Judge Beryl Howell and America's fair and open judicial system.
The Warmbiers were originally seeking more than 1-point-4-5 billion dollars from the reclusive regime.
Warmbier was 21 years old when he was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, after being accused of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel wall while in Pyeongyang as part of a tour group.