Otto Warmbier, US student imprisoned in Pyongyang, released
The young man, sentenced to 15 years of forced labor in March 2016, is reportedly in a coma. US and South Korean citizens used as commodity exchanges in diplomatic relations. Three Americans and six Koreans still in jail in the North. Among them Protestant missionaries, accused of espionage or betrayal. The South pushes for the reopening of dialogue.
Seoul (AsiaNews) - A US student, Otto Warmbier, was released yesterday from Pyongyang prisons and arrived in his homeland late in the evening. In March 2016, the 22-year-old student was sentenced to 15 years of forced labor on charges of stealing propaganda material. Warmbier had confessed in tears (see photo) saying that he had only taken a sign of the propaganda of the regime to give it as a souvenir to his methodist friend in the US.
The family of Warmbier has told the media that their son "is in coma" or "has been in a coma" for a period after his sentencing.
In times of great tension, North Korea often uses US or South Korean citizens as diplomatic levers (or blackmail) to obtain concessions or reductions in tension with the countries of origin of the arrested.
Three other US citizens are in Pyongyang Prison: Kim Dong-chul, 62, sentenced to 10 years of forced labor; Kim Sang-duk, detained since last April; Kim Hak-song, arrested in May last year.
According to the Unification Ministry in Seoul, there are also at least six South Koreans among the northern prisoners. Some of them are missionaries or religious personnel accused of treason or espionage.
After years of frozen relations, Seoul is trying to resume contact with Pyongyang, allowing inter-Korean relations through NGOs and religious organizations to bring medicine, food and building materials to the North without breaking international sanctions.
So far, however, Pyongyang has rejected requests from these groups to visit North Korea, on the excuse that Seoul has upheld the latest UN sanctions.
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