Reuters — North Korea said on Thursday (June 15) it had released American citizen Otto Warmbier “on humanitarian grounds” after he had been held prisoner for 17 months.
Warmbier, 22, a University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, was medically evacuated to the United States on Wednesday (June 14). His family said he arrived in a state of coma.
The North’s KCNA news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch that Warmbier’s release followed a court decision on Tuesday. It did not provide other details.
His release came after Joseph Yun, the US State Department’s special envoy on North Korea, traveled to Pyongyang and demanded Warmbier’s release on “humanitarian grounds,” capping a flurry of secret diplomatic contacts, a US official said.
