The parents of an American university student tortured and left in a coma in North Korea strongly rebuked US President Donald Trump on Friday for accepting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s claim that he did not know about the case.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier, parents of 22-year-old Otto Warmbier — who died days after being sent back to the US from North Korea in a coma in 2017 — condemned the US leader’s “lavish praise” of Kim this week following their summit in Hanoi.
“We have been respectful during this summit process. Now we must speak out,” they said in a statement.
Photo: AP
“Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity,” they said. “No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”
Trump sparked a firestorm in Washington when he told reporters at the summit’s conclusion that he believed Kim’s claim that he did not know what happened to Warmbier during his detention.
“He knew the case very well, but he knew it later,” Trump said. Kim “tells me that he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word.”
Washington politicians quickly reminded the president that in 2017 he took credit for obtaining Warmbier’s release.
“Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea,” Trump said at the time.
“I do not see the leader of North Korea as somebody who’s a friend. We know what happened to Otto, we know what this country has done,” US House of Representatives Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said.
“I support the president’s effort to denuclearize them, but I do not have a misbelief of who this leader is,” he said, speaking of Kim.
The White House made no comment about the statement from Warmbier’s parents, who were invited to attend Trump’s State of the Union address in the US Congress in January last year and were hailed as “incredible people” in his speech.
In a tweet earlier on Friday, before the Warmbier statement, Trump sought to put a good spin on his abortive nuclear talks with Kim.
“Great to be back from Vietnam, an amazing place. We had very substantive negotiations with Kim Jong Un - we know what they want and they know what we must have. Relationship very good, let’s see what happens!”
Trump has tried to remain on speaking terms with Kim, whom he in 2017 labeled as a “madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people.”
After Warmbier’s death, the US government supported his parents in a lawsuit against Pyongyang.
On Dec. 24 last year, a US judge ordered North Korea to pay US$501 million over Warmbier’s death from apparent torture.
A judge said that Warmbier had been used “as a pawn in that totalitarian state’s global shenanigans and face-off with the United States.”
Trump spoke about Kim and Warmbier at the close of the summit in Vietnam to discuss eliminating North Korea’s nuclear weapons that was abruptly cut short.
Trump said that the two leaders could not agree on basic issues in their second meeting, but refrained from criticizing Kim.
“We just like each other ... there’s a warmth that we have and I hope that stays, I think it will,” Trump said.
That drew severe criticism back in Washington.
US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of “once again simply deciding to take a cruel and brutal dictator at his word.”
“He owes Otto Warmbier’s parents an apology. Now,” Schumer said.
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