Media say Trump approved US$2 mln for care of Otto Warmbier

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U.S. President Donald Trump approved payment of a 2 million U.S.-dollar bill presented by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to cover its care of comatose American Otto Warmbier, a college student who died shortly after being returned home from 17 months in a DPRK prison, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The Post said an invoice was handed to State Department envoy Joseph Yun hours before Warmbier, 22, was flown out of Pyongyang in a coma on June 13, 2017. Warmbier died six days later.

The U.S. envoy, who was sent to retrieve Warmbier, signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions passed down from Trump, the Post reported, citing two unidentified people familiar with the situation.

"We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

Yun said in an interview with CNN on Thursday that he was given broad orders to secure Warmbier's release and he understood the instructions came directly from Trump.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier follow the casket of their son, Otto Warmbier, to the hearse after his funeral at Wyoming High School in Wyoming, Ohio, U.S., June 22, 2017. /Reuters Photo

"Yes, my orders were completely: do whatever you can to get Otto back," he told CNN. Yun said he understood that money had been exchanged in previous releases of U.S. prisoners and was justified as "hospital costs," but he gave no further details.

Representatives for the State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The bill was sent to the Treasury Department and remained unpaid through 2017, the Post reported. It was not known if the administration later paid the bill.

Warmbier, a University of Virginia student visiting the DPRK as a tourist, was imprisoned in January 2016. DPRK state media said he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel.

A U.S. court in December ordered the DPRK to pay 501 million U.S. dollars in damages for the torture and death of Warmbier.

(With input from Reuters)

(Cover: American Otto Warmbier is taken to DPRK's top court in Pyongyang, DPRK; photo released by Kyodo on March 16, 2016. /Reuters Photo)