40 Facts About Otto Warmbier

Otto Frederick Warmbier was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion.

Otto Warmbier was freed later that month, still in a comatose state after 17 months in captivity.

Otto Warmbier was sent back to the United States and arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 13,2017.

Otto Warmbier was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for immediate evaluation and treatment.

Otto 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.

In 2018, a US federal court found the North Korean government liable for Otto Warmbier's alleged torture and death, in a default judgment in favor of Otto Warmbier's parents after North Korea did not contest the case.

Otto Warmbier was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 12,1994.

Otto Warmbier attended Wyoming High School, where he was considered popular and studious, and graduated in 2013 as salutatorian.

Otto Warmbier, who was Jewish, was active in Hillel on his college campus.

Otto Warmbier was a member of the Theta Chi fraternity.

Otto 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.

On December 29,2015, Otto Warmbier flew via Beijing to North Korea with his tour group, which included ten other US citizens, for a five-day New Year tour.

On January 2,2016, Otto Warmbier was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport while awaiting departure from North Korea.

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

Otto Warmbier's confession stated that he had plotted to steal the poster at the behest of a Methodist church in his hometown and the, 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.

US negotiator Mickey Bergman later stated that Otto Warmbier's family were advised to maintain silence about his Jewish heritage while he was under arrest, as negotiators believed that publicly repudiating Otto Warmbier's purported affiliation with a Methodist church would antagonize the North Korean regime.

Otto Warmbier was charged with subversion under Article 60 of North Korea's Criminal Code.

Otto Warmbier indicated in his confession that he abandoned the poster after discovering it was too large to carry away.

In May 2017, Fred Otto Warmbier said the Obama administration had encouraged them to keep a low profile about their son's situation, but that he and his wife wanted their son to be part of any negotiations between the United States and North Korea.

Otto Warmbier was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where doctors tried to determine what caused his coma and if there were signs of recovery.

Otto Warmbier was able to breathe on his own and blink his eyes, but otherwise showed no signs of awareness of his environment, such as understanding language, nor did he initiate any purposeful movements.

Medical records from North Korea showed that Otto Warmbier had been in this state since April 2016, one month after his conviction.

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

Otto Warmbier stated that his family did not believe anything the North Koreans told them.

Otto Warmbier expressed anger at the North Koreans for his son's condition, saying, "there is no excuse for any civilized nation to have kept his condition secret, and denied him top-notch medical care for so long".

Otto Warmbier's family issued a statement expressing their sadness, thanking the hospital staff for their actions.

Otto Warmbier was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio, and students tied ribbons on every tree and pole along the 3-mile route taken by the funeral procession from the high school to the cemetery.

Otto Warmbier reminds the world of the human rights wrongs in North Korea.

Otto Warmbier joins the voices of the many witnesses who gave testimony to the UN commission.

Robert R King, former US envoy for North Korea human rights issues, remarked that Warmbier had disregarded the US State Department's travel advisory, which "strongly warns" American citizens not to travel to North Korea.

Some commentators pointed to Otto Warmbier's perceived naivete and white privilege as contributing to his fate.

In July 2017, the US government announced that it would ban American tourists from visiting North Korea as of September 1,2017, with Otto Warmbier's detention given as one of the reasons.

One week later, Trump posted on Twitter that Otto Warmbier was "tortured beyond belief" by North Korea.

Otto Warmbier's 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 as a state-sponsor of terrorism.

The coroner said that Otto Warmbier had died due to brain damage following an interruption of blood flow.

President Trump argued that it would not have been to Kim's advantage to allow Otto Warmbier to be treated poorly.

In December 2022, the US Congress passed the Otto Warmbier Countering North Korean Censorship and Surveillance Act of 2021.

North Korea did not contest the case in court, although the director of the Pyongyang hospital where Otto Warmbier had been treated issued a press-release reaffirming North Korea's denials that Otto Warmbier had been tortured by the regime.

In July 2019, the Otto Warmbier family filed a claim on a North Korean cargo ship, Wise Honest, that had been judicially seized in Indonesia by the US government in May 2019 for allegedly transporting and selling North Korean coal in violation of international sanctions.

In 2019, Kim Dong Chul, a Korean-American businessman detained in North Korea at the same time as Otto Warmbier but released to the US in 2018, said he had witnessed a young American man, presumably Otto Warmbier, "almost fainting, being dragged across a hallway by investigators with his head and face soaked with water".