Everyone Reminds Trump He Believed Kim Jong Un Had Nothing To Do With Otto Warmbier’s Death

Everyone Reminds Trump He Believed Kim Jong Un Had Nothing To Do With Otto Warmbier’s Death

The Washington Post dropped an absolutely blockbuster on Thursday when the paper’s Beijing bureau chief Anna Fifield revealed that North Korea insisted that the United States agree to pay a $2 million medical bill for the care of then-comatose student Otto Warmbier, who had been held been tortured and held prisoner by the Hermit Kingdom.

According to Fifield, the invoice — which has not been previously disclosed — was presented in 2017 to the U.S. envoy who was sent to North Korea to retrieve Warmbier, who had been in a coma since being sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016 for pulling down a propaganda sign in a hotel. North Korea did not inform America of Warmbier’s condition for over a year, prompting the U.S. to increase its efforts to get the American student home, who died shortly after arriving in the United States.

While it is unknown whether the Trump administration ever paid the bill or if it came up during later summits between the two country’s leaders, Trump has repeatedly insisted that he paid “nothing” to bring American hostages home from North Korea.

Also, during his Hanoi summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un earlier this year, the president said that he believed Kim when he said that he didn’t know anything about the torture Warmbier experienced during his custody in North Korea that resulted in his death, remarks that were pilloried at the time.

As you would imagine, following a report that North Korea demanded millions for taking care of the comatose Warmbier, reporters, journalists and observers once again took aim at the president for that absurd assertion.

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the founder/publisher of Contemptor and a contributor to The Daily Beast. He was previously the Cable News Correspondent for Mediaite and prior to starting Contemptor, he worked on the editorial staff of PoliticusUSA. During that time, he had his work quoted by USA Today and BBC News, among others. Justin began his published career as a political writer for 411Mania. He resides in St. Louis, MO with his wife and pets.

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