Trump Defends Kim Over Death Of Otto Warmbier
President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their second summit meeting on February 27, 2019 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Image by Vietnam News Agency/Handout/Getty Images
By Aiden Pink February 28, 2019
President Trump defended North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Thursday over the treatment of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was arrested in North Korea in 2015 and later returned to his family in a coma, from which he later died.
Speaking at a press conference after the end of a nuclear summit in Vietnam, Trump said he had spoken to Kim about Warmbier’s treatment. He said Kim feels badly about what occurred but that the dictator had only learned about the case after the fact.
“He tells me he didn’t know about it, and I take him at his word,” Trump said.
Warmbier, who was Jewish, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster while in the country. Korean authorities say that Warmbier contracted botulism; his family alleges that their son was “brutally tortured.” Warmbier’s American doctors said that he had severe brain damage.
Trump said when Warmbier returned in 2017 that the student was “tortured beyond belief.” He later credited the incident for instigating the first round of negotiations last year.
Warmbier’s parents won a $501 million lawsuit against the Kim regime, but are unlikely to ever collect.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
