- North Korea has sentenced the American student who tried to steal propaganda materials from a hotel in Pyongyang
- Otto Warmbier was sentenced 15 years of ‘hard labor’
- The United States condemned the punishment, saying it is ‘unduly harsh’
North Korea has issued a 15-year sentence to the American student who was arrested for trying to steal propaganda materials in a hotel during his trip to Pyongyang.
Economics student Otto Warmbier of the University of Virginia was sentenced 15 years of hard labor after being detained in January.
Photo Credit: BBC
CNN said in an earlier story that the United States State Department has called on Pyongyang authorities to release Warmbier saying that the punishment is unfit to the crime he has committed.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner was cited in the story as saying that the sentence to the 21-year-old student was “unduly harsh.”
Toner said the US seeks North Korea “to pardon him and to grant him special amnesty and immediate release on humanitarian grounds.”
Warmbier joined a five-day trip to North Korea with a group of people last New Year. He missed his flight when immigration officials immediately took him.
The college student previously admitted the crime he has committed in a press conference last February.
“The aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people. This was a very foolish aim,” BBC quoted Warmbier as saying. He also said with regrets that it was the “worst mistake” of his life
International group Human Rights Watch also condemned North Korea’s ruling on Warmbier’s case.
“North Korea’s sentencing of Otto Warmbier to 15 years hard labor for a college-style prank is outrageous and shocking, and should not be permitted to stand,” said Deputy Director Phil Robertson.
Warmbier’s lawyer said the gravity of his crime against North Korea cannot be paid even with his life but he proposed a much lowered sentence for the young man.
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