Thread: US student Otto Warmbier given 15 years hard labour in North Korea

If those silly ignorant, arrogant Americans bothered to read up on visiting North Korea and the many other places they appear they might actually realize not everybody speaks English and not everybody lives by their standards whatever they might be - seen it so many times.

Here is Otto's press conference.

OTTO FUCKING WARM BEER
The clue's in the fucking name

Originally Posted by Black Heart

Here is Otto's press conference.

A very polished performance

BLATANT SPY

Stupid plonker, if he wanted a N.Korean slogan sign so badly he just needed to show dollars and he could have bought it.
It's a corrupt state

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-40264468

Otto Warmbier: North Korea releases jailed US student 'in coma'
US student Otto Warmbier has been freed from jail in North Korea, but his parents say he has been in a coma for a year.

The US secretary of state said the 22-year-old was on his way home to the US.

The Warmbier family told US media they had found out only last week that their son has been in a coma since shortly after his trial in March 2016.

Mr Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour for attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel.

Who is Otto Warmbier?

Otto Warmbier is an economics graduate from the University of Virginia, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio.

He was in North Korea as a tourist with Young Pioneer Tours when he was arrested on 2 January 2016.

He gave a televised confession a month later, in which he said he had tried to take the sign as a "trophy" for a US church, adding "the aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people".

It was not clear whether he had made the statement voluntarily, but foreign detainees in North Korea have previously recanted confessions, saying they were made under pressure.

It's pretty F*cked-up, but no surprise.

In a coma for a year. That does not bode well.

As for Ronin's post #26, I think it was very foolish for the University of Virginia - who organized the NK stop-over on the way to a study abroad program in Honk Kong to do a stop-over in NK with young Uni students.

Stupid.

US Student Imprisoned in North Korea Dies

Otto Warmbier, the American college student who was detained in North Korea for nearly a year and a-half, has died, his family announced Monday afternoon.

Warmbier was returned to the United States last week in a coma. Doctors in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio said the 22-year-old had suffered severe brain damage while in North Korea, but that it was not clear what caused it.

more https://www.voanews.com/a/otto-warmb...-/3906982.html

Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was released by North Korea in a coma last week after almost a year and a half in captivity, died Monday, his family said.

The 22-year-old "has completed his journey home," relatives said in a statement. They did not cite a specific cause of death.

"Unfortunately, the awful, torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today," his parents said.

Doctors had described his condition as a state of "unresponsive wakefulness" and said he suffered a "severe neurological injury" of unknown cause.

His father, Fred Warmbier, said last week that he believed Otto had been fighting for months to stay alive to return to his family. The family said he looked uncomfortable and anguished after arriving June 13 but his countenance later changed.

"He was peace. He was home, and we believe he could sense that," they said.

Warmbier was accused of trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting with a tour group and was convicted of subversion. He was put before North Korean officials and journalists for a televised "confession."

"I have made the worst mistake of my life!" he exclaimed, choking up as he begged to be allowed to reunite with his parents and two younger siblings.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor.

The University of Virginia student was held for more than 17 months. His family said it was told he had been a coma since soon after his March 2016 sentencing.

Doctors said he suffered extensive loss of brain tissue and "profound weakness and contraction" of his muscles, arms and legs. His eyes opened and blinked but without any sign that he understood verbal commands or his surroundings.

Unresponsive wakefulness is a new medical term for persistent vegetative state. Patients in this condition who have survived a coma can open their eyes, but they do not respond to commands. People can live in a state of unresponsive wakefulness for many years with the chances of recovery depending on the extent of the brain injury.

North Korea said Warmbier went into a coma after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill. Doctors in Cincinnati said they found no active sign of botulism or evidence of beatings.

His parents told The Associated Press the day of his release that they wanted "the world to know how we and our son have been brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime."

Fred Warmbier praised his son's "performance" and President Donald Trump's administration. He was critical of the approach to his son's situation taken by former President Barack Obama's administration.

In a White House statement, Trump said, "A lot of bad things happened, but at least we got him home to be with his parents." He called North Korea a "brutal regime."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he offered his prayers as Warmbier's parents "enter a time of grief no parent should ever know," and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Warmbier's death "touches the American heart like no other."

The younger Warmbier grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Wyoming. He was salutatorian of his 2013 class at a highly rated high school and was on the soccer team. He had had planned to study in China in his third year of college and heard about Chinese travel companies offering trips to North Korea.

Young Pioneer Tours described itself as providing "budget tours to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from." Its travel options also included Iran, Iraq and former Soviet countries.

Warmbier was leaving North Korea on Jan. 2, 2016, when he was detained at the airport.

The U.S. Department of State warns against travel to North Korea. While nearly all Americans who have been there have left without incident, visitors can be seized and face lengthy incarceration for what might seem like minor infractions.

Jeffrey Fowle, also from Ohio, was detained in 2014 when he intentionally left a Bible in a nightclub. Fowle was freed after six months. He said he was kept isolated most of the time but not physically abused. He and others freed from North Korea have said they were coached and coerced into giving confessions.

Three Americans remain held in North Korea. The U.S. government accuses North Korea of using such detainees as political pawns. North Korea accuses Washington and South Korea of sending spies to overthrow its government.

At the time of Warmbier's release, a White House official said Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy on North Korea, had met with North Korean foreign ministry representatives in Norway the previous month. Such direct consultations between the two governments are rare because they do not have formal diplomatic relations.

Yun learned about Warmbier's condition in a meeting a week before the release from the North Korean ambassador at the U.N. in New York. Yun then was dispatched to North Korea and visited Warmbier June 12 with two doctors and demanded his release on humanitarian grounds.

Warmbier's hometown rallied around his family, wrapping school-color ribbons around trees and utility poles lining Wyoming's main road. People chanted "Otto Strong!" and "We love you!" after his father's news conference last week at the high school.

Warmbier was "generous, outgoing, sweet, smart as a whip, just an overall good guy," Danica White, his sophomore English teacher, recalled last week.

On Monday evening, she said: "Otto will be dearly missed."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/u...ed-22-48140930

That whole story, from start to finish, is just really weird.

The US will be 'outraged' for a day, and move on. One really does have to question to common sense of bible bashers who decide to go to NK.

Apparently he suffered a "traumatic brain injury".

Although you'd have to question if it was firing on all cylinders anyway.

I doubt he's the first American to be beaten to death by police in some tin pot dictatorship eh?

Link

One can not imagine what goes on in the biggest concentration camp called Auschwi...ahemm... North Korea.

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

One can not imagine what goes on in the biggest concentration camp called Auschwi...ahemm... North Korea.

Can you imagine what is going on in any prison, no matter if the regime is friendly or unfriendly (rogue)?

For start read "The Innocent Man", by bestselling author John Grisham, his only non-fiction from more than 30 his bestselling fictions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_In...n_a_Small_Town

John Grisham supports also a non-profit legal organization that is committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing and to reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project

Sad case.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

One can not imagine what goes on in the biggest concentration camp called Auschwi...ahemm... North Korea.

Can you imagine what is going on in any prison, no matter if the regime is friendly or unfriendly (rogue)?

For start read "The Innocent Man", by bestselling author John Grisham, his only non-fiction from more than 30 his bestselling fictions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_In...n_a_Small_Town

John Grisham supports also a non-profit legal organization that is committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing and to reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project

It may sound strange but I've been watching prison documentaries.

On all sorts of topics: rules, gangs, how to survive, the hole, and all of that stuff.

Creepy.

A place I'd never want to be, in addition to being separated from loved ones / family and just about everything you enjoy doing.

I would suggest watching/downloading "Banged Up Abroad" a.k.a "Locked Up Abroad", a really good series about people caught (usually) smuggling drugs.

It normally covers how fucking stupid they are in the first place; seems to be a common theme.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I would suggest watching/downloading "Banged Up Abroad" a.k.a "Locked Up Abroad"

Good show...loads of them on YT.

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

One can not imagine what goes on in the biggest concentration camp called Auschwi...ahemm... North Korea.

You need to keep a sense of perspective. It could be far, far worse. Have you read this tale of horror and oppression from one of our members. One only hopes that some day he will get past this dreadful experience.

Originally Posted by wasabi

I live in North Korea. Monday, yes it's Monday and I haven't a care in the world and the sun is shining and I drive into Mc Donald's stop at the microphone to place My order for a take away coffee. There's a notice pinned to the speaker box. At 11 o clock a minute silence will take place in remembrance of some London tower block .
So last Monday they had the same notice for London Bridge.
Monday before that it was the same Fkn notice for Manchester.
Every Monday a minute silence at 11 for all people, it's mass control.
So who's next for this coming Monday?
Kim

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

That whole story, from start to finish, is just really weird.

One thing is very clear. The North Korean government is one of the most heinous in the world. Should have went there instead of Iraq and ridden the world of their shit stain regime. Meanwhile they continue busying themselves merrily starving millions of women, men, and children. Fuck them

Originally Posted by taxexile

he will do a couple of years, then be released as part of some deal or other, return to the usa a hero with tv appearances, books, films, unlimited pussy etc.

he is made for life

Well, you got that one wrong didnt you

A little background on the company that he booked the trip through....

Even a superficial look at Young Pioneer Tours, the people who brought American college student Otto Warmbier to North Korea, raises serious questions about the practices of the company that advertises "budget travel to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from."

Warmbier was detained while trying to leave North Korea at the end of his trip with Young Pioneer Tours and imprisoned last year. The regime returned Warmbier to his parents last week with severe brain damage.

On the Young Pioneer Tours website, only a few of the many seemingly innocuous activities that the United States Department of State warns could send tourists to prison in North Korea are explicitly described as illegal. Young Pioneer Tours urges customers not to engage in a political debate with their North Korean tour guides, for example, because “their beliefs are important to them.” It also warns that customers should not take photographs of locals without permission because it may be considered discourteous. But the risk of prison time or hard labor goes unmentioned.

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news...ea-061917.html

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I would suggest watching/downloading "Banged Up Abroad" a.k.a "Locked Up Abroad", a really good series about people caught (usually) smuggling drugs.

It normally covers how fucking stupid they are in the first place; seems to be a common theme.

Yes, I've seen many of those.

When I go on business trips I watch them in hotels, b/c I don't watch TV at home.

Good stories - and yes - they be be soooo......dumb.

Originally Posted by redhaze

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

That whole story, from start to finish, is just really weird.

One thing is very clear. The North Korean government is one of the most heinous in the world. Should have went there instead of Iraq and ridden the world of their shit stain regime. Meanwhile they continue busying themselves merrily starving millions of women, men, and children. Fuck them

Agreed on being the most heinous.

I think action will taken against NK in some form within 5 years (before or near the next US election).