WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. did not pay any cash to North Korea because it sought the discharge of Otto Warmbier a day after a report stated Trump had authorized a $2 million bill from Pyongyang for the American pupil’s care.
“No money became paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, no longer Million Dollars, not anything else,” Trump wrote in a tweet. The Washington Post mentioned on Thursday that Trump had authorized a fee of a $2 million invoice from Pyongyang to cowl its care of the unconscious university scholar, who was held in a North Korean prison for 17 months until June 2017. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student from
Ohio traveling to North Korea as a vacationer, became imprisoned in January 2016. He changed into sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor for allegedly looking to scouse borrow an item with a propaganda slogan from his resort, North Korean kingdom media said. Warmbier died six days after his release from North Korea. An Ohio coroner said Warmbier died from a loss of oxygen and blood to his brain. North Korea, which has brushed off claims that it tortured the scholar, blamed meals poisoning and a drowsing tablet.
The Treasury Department acquired the bill from North Korea, and it remained unpaid through 2017, the Post mentioned. It was not clear whether or not the management paid the invoice later. Trump’s tweet did now not deal with whether any agreement has been made, and representatives for the White House did not right now respond to requests for remark. Asked whether it becomes accurate to say that no cash turned into paid to North Korea within the Warmbier case, a State Department spokeswoman stated using email: “We decline to comment.” The Treasury Department did no longer respond to a request for remark.
