How Many People Are Imprisoned In North Korea After Release Of Otto Warmbier?

Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old student from Ohio was released from prison, and is set to be home Tuesday night. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the news Tuesday morning. Warmbier has been in prison for 17 months and, according to the Washington Post, is coming home in a coma. He is being medically evacuated by way of an American military base in Sapporo, Japan.

Warmbier was on a tour of North Korean capital Pyongyang on New Year’s Eve 2015 when he was arrested. The University of Virginia student appears to have gone to a prohibited part of the hotel he was staying at and removed a large propaganda poster, commonly seen throughout the capital.

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Warmbier was en route to Beijing to do a study-abroad program, but instead was charged with “hostile acts against the state,” in a trial in March, 2016. At the end of the hour-long-trial he was sentenced with 15 years of hard labor.

The release of Warmbier comes on the same day as former NBA star Dennis Rodman heads to Pyongyang. Rodman has made four trips to the country whose leader, Kim Jong Un, is a noted basketball fan.

The Post reports that Warmbier’s parents have been told that their son has been in a coma for over a year and that he had contracted a case of botulism shortly after the trial. The information, however, came from the North Korean government and has not yet been verified.

The US Department of State warns Americans not to travel to North Korea.

“(North Korea) imposes unduly harsh sentences for actions that would not be considered crimes in the United States and threatens US citizen detainees with being treated in accordance with ‘wartime law of the DPRK,’” the State Department warns. The US has no diplomatic ties with North Korea, and often deals with the country by proxy through Swedish emissaries or China.

Warmbier’s release leaves the American prisoner count in North Korea at three. These prisoners face a tense time in US – North Korea relations with President Donald Trump taking a tougher stance on the nation, and Pyongyang conducting several threatening missile tests.

Kim Dong Chul, an American business man has been in detention longer than Warmbier. He was arrested in October 2015. Kim was charged in April, 2016 for espionage and sentenced to 10 years hard labor.During his trial Kim admitted that he was conducting espionage for South Korea and was connected to them through U.S. handlers. North Korea, however is known for forcing prisoner’s confessions. South Korea, where Kim was originally from, has denied the charge.

Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, was arrested in April. He was a professor at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China and was visiting its sister school Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) as a guest lecturer the Washington Post reported in April. The teacher was charged with trying to overthrow the government per CNN.

Another Korean-American professor at PUST, Kim Hak Song, was arrested in May and according to Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s propaganda media arm, charged with “hostile act” towards the state.

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PUST is the first and only privately funded University in China and is largely funded by Christian charities.

North Korea’s longest held American prisoner was Christian missionary Kenneth Bae. He was arrested in November, 2012 and wasn’t released until November, 2014. Bae was sentenced to 15 years hard labor for crimes against the state.