‘No excuse’ for N Korea’s treatment of US student – father
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The father of Otto Warmbier, the US student released from North Korean detention in a coma this week, said Thursday there was “no excuse” for the way his son was treated.
According to the hospital treating him, the 22-year-old suffered severe neurological injury during more than a year of detention in the isolated country, for stealing a political poster from a hotel.
“There’s no excuse for the way the North Koreans treated our son and no excuse for the way they have treated so many others,” Fred Warmbier told a news conference in the family’s home city of Cincinnati, Ohio.
“I call on them to release the other Americans being held,” he urged.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier have said their son was “terrorised and brutalised” by Kim Jong-Un’s regime.
According to Kelly Martin, spokeswoman for the UC Health University of Cincinnati medical center, “Otto is in stable condition but has suffered a severe neurological injury.”
The team treating him were to deliver a full medical update later in the day.