US student ‘confesses’ to crimes against North Korea

Otto Warmbier, 21, a student at the University of Virginia, was detained before boarding his flight to China over an unspecified incident at his hotel, his tour agency told Reuters in January. North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners and has used jailed US citizens in the past to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations. 

“I committed the crime of taking out a political slogan from the staff-only area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted Warmbier as telling media in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. 

A video clip posted on CNN correspondent Will Ripley’s Twitter account showed a sobbing Warmbier saying: “I have made the worst mistake of my life, but please act to save me.” Warmbier said a “deaconess” had offered him a used car worth $10,000 if he could present the church with the slogan as a “trophy” from North Korea, KCNA said. 

The acquaintance also said the church would pay his mother $200,000 if he was detained by the North and did not return, KCNA quoted Warmbier as saying.

“My crime is very severe and pre-planned,” Warmbier was quoted as saying, adding that he was impressed by North Korea’s “humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself”. Warmbier’s family have not heard from him since his arrest, according to the Cavalier Daily , the University of Virginia’s student-run newspaper. “He seems to be in good health, although we won’t know for sure about his condition until we have a chance to speak with him,” said the statement in the paper.