His plight compounded tense US-North Korean relations. His parents made clear yesterday that while they were silenced by fear of what North Korea might do to Otto after his arrest, they were not going to be quiet any longer.
"We woke up and we realised that North Korea wants us to lock ourselves in a room and do nothing, and we think that's a bad idea," Fred Warmbier said.
He said he and his wife were now focusing on the events that occurred "while they had Otto hostage and they were using him as a pawn". "We are trying to build a pathway that leads directly to Kim and his regime to force them to be answerable for their actions," he said.
Cindy Warmbier said Otto was brain dead at four months of captivity, and anyone who had a heart would have said, "Well, we screwed up, let's get him some medical care." But instead, she said, the North Koreans left him in a horrible place with no care to vegetate, and then acted "like we're doing the world a favour" and released him saying he had botulism - which US doctors never confirmed.
"So we can't be quiet, can we?" she said. "People say, 'Why are you doing this'? How can I not?"
- AP
