hankyoreh

after being brought back to the US after 17 months in North Korea

Otto Warmbier, the American student who returned home in a coma after a long period of detention in North Korea, passed away on June 19.

Warmbier was on a trip to Pyongyang in Jan. 2016 when he was arrested for attempting to steal a propaganda poster on the wall of a hotel that contained the name of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Warmbier was convicted of attempting to overthrow the regime and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. On June 13, Warmbier was released while in a coma, dying six days later.

In North Korea, objects that contain the name or picture of Kim Jong-il are regarded as inviolable. But Warmbier was a foreigner, as well as a curious student in his early twenties. At the most, he might have been fined for attempted theft; this mere tourist hardly deserved to be sentenced to 15 years on trumped up charges of trying to “overthrow the regime.”

In the past, North Korea has also given tourists heavy sentences (between six and 15 years) for trivial offenses and then held them until the US negotiated their release. It has used these detained civilians as a means of relaxing strained relations with the US. If Warmbier had returned home in good health, his release could once again have been a catalyst for improving North Korea-US relations.

From Warmbier’s release until now, after he has died, North Korea has not said a single word about the matter, let alone made an apology. Warmbier reportedly remained in a coma for a long time with severe brain damage. Pyongyang claims that Warmbier fell into the coma after coming down with botulism (a type of food poisoning) and taking sleeping medicine following his trial in Mar. 2016. But the hospital in Cincinnati where Warmbier was admitted responded that there was no evidence of food poisoning. The North Korean government is responsible for investigating and disclosing how and why Warmbier came to be in that condition.

First of all, North Korea needs to be proactive about apologizing for and investigating Warmbier’s death. Setting aside the North’s political and diplomatic goal of improving relations with the US, this is something it ought to seriously consider in light of universal values and human rights. In addition, North Korea ought to immediately and unconditionally release the other three Korean-Americans who are being detained even now. The American public’s view of North Korea has been drastically deteriorating because of Warmbier’s death. The US government’s foreign policy is inevitably influenced by domestic public opinion. Currently, six South Korean citizens, including three missionaries, are being held in North Korea, serving life sentences for espionage and other crimes.

On June 20, President Moon Jae-in denounced North Korea for “not respecting human rights, which are a universal human norm and value.” Unlike the administration of former president Park Geun-hye (2013-16), the Moon administration is pursuing dialogue with North Korea. Unless North Korea takes action to resolve this problem that it has created, the opportunity for bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula will be delayed once more. We sincerely call on North Korea to change its attitude.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

American university student Otto Warmbier is brought off a plane in a coma at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati