Otto Warmbier, a US university student held captive in North Korea for 17 months, has been released, but a former US official says he is in a coma and in urgent need of medical care.
Key points:
- Former US diplomat says Warmbier has been in a coma for a year
- Warmbier had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labour
- US remains in discussions about three other Americans detained in North Korea
Warmbier, 22, a University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, was on his way back to the United States, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.
“Otto has been in a coma for over a year now and urgently needs proper medical care in the United States,” Bill Richardson, a veteran former diplomat and politician who has played a role in past negotiations with North Korea, said after speaking to Warmbier’s parents.
The family said they were told by North Korean officials, through contacts with American envoys, that Warmbier fell ill from botulism sometime after his March 2016 trial and lapsed into a coma after taking a sleeping pill, the Washington Post reported…
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