DPRK says accusations of US student died of torture are 'groundless'

World
Europe

DPRK said on Friday the death of US university student Otto Warmbier soon after his return home was a mystery and dismissed accusations that Warmbier had died because of torture and beating during his captivity as "groundless".

DPRK's foreign ministry spokesman said Warmbier was "a victim of the policy of strategic patience" of former US President Barack Obama whose government never requested his release, according to comments carried by the official KCNA agency.

"The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week just after his return to the US ... is a mystery to us as well," KCNA quoted the spokesman as saying.

Otto Frederick Warmbier was taken to DPRK's top court in Pyongyang. / Reuters

Warmbier, 22, was arrested while visiting the reclusive country as a tourist. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel, DPRK state media said.

He was sent home last week suffering from brain damage and in what US doctors called a state of unresponsive wakefulness. He died on Monday.

Katina Adams, a spokeswoman for the US State Department’s East Asia Bureau, said Washington had repeatedly requested the release of Warmbier under the Obama administration.

A former senior State Department official said the United States had made repeated requests for Warmbier's release on humanitarian grounds under Obama, including via the DPRK mission at the United Nations, via the Swedish mission in Pyongyang, at unofficial talks with DPRK officials involving former US officials, and via third parties.

Warmbier's death fanned a conflict between the DPRK and the United States that was already aggravated by DPRK's defiant missile launches and two nuclear tests since early last year as part of its effort to build a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting the US mainland.

A US official said on Thursday that DPRK had conducted another test of a rocket engine believed to be linked to Pyongyang's ICBM program.

(Source: Reuters)