Otto Frederick Warmbier (December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion.

In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died soon after his parents requested his feeding tube be removed.

[1] Shortly after his sentencing in March 2016, Warmbier suffered a severe neurological injury from an unknown cause and fell into a coma, which lasted until his death.

[2] North Korean authorities did not disclose his medical condition until June 2017, when they announced he had fallen into a coma as a result of botulism and a sleeping pill.

Warmbier never regained consciousness and died on June 19, 2017, six days after his return to the United States when his parents requested his feeding tube be removed.

[8] Warmbier was scheduled to undertake a study-abroad program in Hong Kong in early 2016, and decided to visit North Korea en route over the New Year period.

"[12] Warmbier's father, Fred, said that Young Pioneer advertised the trip as safe for U.S. citizens[13][14] and that Otto was "curious about their culture ... he wanted to meet the people of North Korea.

[1][3] The tour group celebrated New Year's Eve by carousing in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square before returning to the Yanggakdo International Hotel, where some continued drinking alcohol.

[15] North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) initially announced that Warmbier had been detained for "a hostile act against the state", without specifying further details.

[15] North Korea refused to elaborate on the precise nature of his wrongdoing for six weeks,[12] although a Young Pioneer spokeswoman advised Reuters there had been an "incident" at the Yanggakdo Hotel.

[15] In a press conference on February 29, 2016, Warmbier, reading from a prepared statement, confessed that he had attempted to steal a propaganda poster from a restricted staff-only-area of the second floor[a] of the Yanggakdo Hotel to take home.

[26][27][28] Warmbier's confession also stated that he had plotted to steal the poster at the behest of a Methodist church in his hometown and the Z-Society, a secret society at the University of Virginia that he wished to join, both of which he said were allied with the Central Intelligence Agency.

[22] The New York Times remarked that "the unlikely nature of the details suggested the script had been written by Mr. Warmbier's North Korean interrogators".

[33] The court held that he had committed a crime "pursuant to the U.S. government's hostile policy toward [North Korea], in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist.

[35][36] The CCTV footage showed a man, identified as Warmbier by his North Korean guide, entering the staff only area.

[37] On March 18, KCNA released a brief low-resolution video, time-stamped 1:57 a.m., showing a figure removing a poster from a wall and placing it on the floor.

[45] Fred and Cindy Warmbier met with numerous Obama administration officials, including then Secretary of State John Kerry, and with the Swedish ambassador, Torkel Stiernlöf, who served as an interlocutor between the U.S. and North Korea.

[50][b] Subsequent media reports revealed that, at a meeting in New York on June 6, North Korean officials had advised U.S. State Department Special Representative Joseph Yun that Warmbier had contracted food-borne botulism shortly after his sentencing and had fallen into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

[24][52][53] After 17 months in detention, Warmbier, still in a comatose state, was medically evacuated from the Pyongyang Friendship Hospital[54] to Cincinnati, arriving on the evening of June 13.

His doctors found no evidence of physical abuse or torture; scans of Warmbier's neck and head were normal outside of the brain injury.

[9][57][58] Warmbier's father held a press conference on June 15, but declined to answer a reporter's question as to whether or not the neurological injury was caused by an assault, saying he would let the doctors make that determination.

"[61][62] North Korean officials said their country was the "biggest victim" of Warmbier's death as a result of a "smear campaign", stating their treatment of him was "humanitarian".

A spokesman added: Although we had no reason at all to show mercy to such a criminal of the enemy state, we provided him with medical treatments and care with all sincerity on humanitarian basis until his return to the U.S., considering that his health got worse.

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said, "Countless innocent men and women have died at the hands of the North Korean criminals, but the singular case of Otto Warmbier touches the American heart like no other".

[83][84][85] In July 2017, the U.S. government announced that it would ban American tourists from visiting North Korea as of September 1, 2017, with Warmbier's detention given as one of the reasons.

[86][87] In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 19, 2017, President Donald Trump mentioned Warmbier while lambasting North Korea as a rogue state.

[89] His post followed a televised interview given by Warmbier's parents, in which they spoke of their son's death and expressed their wish for North Korea to be relisted[c] as a state-sponsor of terrorism.

[96] Trump later said his remarks had been "misinterpreted" and added, "Of course I hold North Korea responsible for Otto's mistreatment and death", without mentioning Kim specifically.

[105][107][108] On December 24, 2018, Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell handed down a default judgment[d] ordering North Korea to pay $501 million in damages.

[113][114][115] U.S. federal judges ordered that the vessel be sold to compensate the Warmbiers, and also the family of Kim Dong-shik, a Korean-American missionary believed to have died in North Korea after being abducted from China in January 2000.