Judge orders North Korea to pay Warmbier family $500 million

WASHINGTON – A federal court judge ordered North Korea to pay the parents of Otto Warmbier more than $500 million, holding the country liable for the torture and death of their son.

The case attracted international attention because of the horrific circumstances of the young man’s death, and because Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was seized by North Korea at a time of escalating tensions with the United States. Wambier was visiting the country in January, 2016 when he was prevented from leaving, accused of attempting to steal a propaganda sign, and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a sham trial.

In a strongly-worded opinion, Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the large award was necessary to punish and deter North Korea. “North Korea is liable for the torture, hostage taking, and extrajudicial killing of Otto Warmbier, and the injuries to his mother and father, Fred and Cindy Warmbier,” Howell wrote.

“Before Otto traveled with a tour group on a five-day trip to North Korea, he was a healthy, athletic student of economics and business in his junior year at the University of Virginia, with ‘big dreams’ and both the smarts and people skills to make him his high school class salutatorian, homecoming king, and prom king,” Howell wrote. “… He was blind, deaf, and brain dead when North Korea turned him over to U.S. government officials for his final trip home.”