After two months, North Korea has allowed Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old student at the University of Virginia, to speak in front of the press and publicly appologize for allegedly stealing a banner. Warmbier, while traveling with Young Pioneer Tours, had gone into one of the staff-only sections of the hotel he was staying at in an attempt to steal the banner, which he said a neighbor had asked him to get. He was later detained at the Pyongyang airport.
Warmbier, who is originally from Ohio, was just now given the opportunity to talk to the media, giving his family back in the U.S. a chance to know he’s alive. He said that he was asked by a member of an Ohio church to take the sign as a trophy. This person also bribed Warmbier, giving him a used car worth $10,000 and telling him that, if he were to get caught and detained, his family back in the United States would be sent $200,000, as long as there was no mention of the church being to blame.
This is, of course, a totally bizarre story. Warmbier does not go to the church where this alleged bribe took place, according to reporting by CNN. He is also not a member of a secret group at UVA with ties to the CIA—another piece of Warmbier’s confession. North Korea is known for accusing foreign visitors to the country of being spies, and as The New York Times put it, “the unlikely nature of the details [in the confession] suggested the script had been written by Mr. Warmbier’s North Korean interrogators.”
Governor of Ohio and presidential candidate John Kasich commented on the arrest, saying that Warmbier, “should be released & returned immediately,” according to KTLA. Kasich later said that President Obama should, “make every effort to secure Mr. Warmbier’s immediate release and keep (his) family constantly apprised,” according to CBS News.
North Korea’s arrest of an Ohio college student is inexcusable & he should be released & returned immediately. https://t.co/nfvkCwT4iB
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) January 22, 2016
Hopefully Warmbier will be released soon. This scary situation is a reminder that travel to North Korea is not a good idea—the State Department strongly discourages travel to North Korea by U.S. citizens.