Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio, was convicted after a one-hour trial at North Korea’s Supreme Court, China’s Xinhua news agency, which has a bureau in Pyongyang, reported Wednesday.
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North Korea’s sentencing of American student Otto Warmbier to 15 years of hard labour for crimes against the state, has been condemned by Washington as politically motivated.
Several U.S. citizens who had been detained in North Korea and released in the past have also “confessed” their crimes in front of media reporters, an event carefully orchestrated by the state authorities in Pyongyang.
“North Korea’s sentencing of Otto Warmbier to 15 years’ hard labor for a college-style prank is outrageous and shocking”, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, in a statement.
North Korea has used Western detainees in the past in order to compel high – level American politicians to visit the country.
North Korea always protests the joint military drills in South Korea because it sees them as a pretext for an invasion, but Pyongyang’s reaction is particularly ferocious this year because the allies are practicing “decapitation strikes” that target North Korea’s leadership and its nuclear and missile facilities. The timing of the conviction is important since it was announced just after the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea.
The U.S. State Department did not have an immediate comment and Warmbier’s parents could not immediately be reached.
At a press conference at the end of February, Warmbier claimed he was trying to disrupt the unity of North Korea and that he had been manipulated to steal the banner by the U.S. Government.
Toner said a representative of the Swedish embassy, which looks after US affairs in North Korea, had visited Warmbier in prison and was present at the sentencing.
The subversion charges against him alleged the Central Intelligence Agency and a secretive university organization were involved in the crime as well.
Warmbier also reportedly said that the Z-society, a philanthropic secret society at UVA, “clandestinely encouraged my act”.
Warmbier said he accepted the offer because his family was “suffering from very severe financial difficulties”. The BBC point out that a 15-year sentence is even high when compared to those given to foreigners in the past. According to the Times, a previous visitor was arrested and detained for months after leaving a bible in a hotel.
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In 2014, the North cut short the sentences of three Americans detained, releasing Kenneth Bae, Matthew Todd Miller and Jeffrey Fowle.
