North Korea Rejects Otto Warmbier Compensation Verdict, Won't Pay Anything

North Korea rejected a US court verdict that ordered them to pay for the compensation of an American student’s death after he returned from North Korea in a comatose condition.

The verdict ordered North Korea to pay $550 million in damages to the parents of Otto Warmbier who was imprisoned in the North for 17 months. The ruling made by the US District Court in Washington, last month said Pyongyang was responsible for Warmbier’s death.

The verdict sent to North Korea’s foreign ministry via DHL courier service earlier this month arrived in Pyongyang on Friday. However, “it was returned to the shipper” right away even as DHL tried to deliver it to the ministry on Monday. The mail addressed to the North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong-Ho, included the ruling on the case as well as the judge’s written opinion and all court documents translated into Korean.

Warmbier, a student of University of Virginia, died six days after he returned to the United States in a comatose condition in 2017. He had gone to the North in 2015 with a tour group and was arrested on Jan. 1, 2016 on suspicion of stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016.

However, he was brought back in July 2017 after he reported unconscious in prison. A coroner from Ohio who performed the autopsy said the cause of death was lack of oxygen and blood supply to the brain. According to a neurologist, Warmbier also suffered brain damage possibly from the loss of blood flow to the brain for five to 20 minutes.

After his death Warmbier’s parents filed a suit for compensation worth $1.1 billion and the court ordered North Korea to compensate his parents for damages for pain, suffering and medical expenses. The lawsuit describes in detail the physical abuse he suffered while he was in custody. He had gone blind and deaf, was jerking violently and was totally unresponsive. North Korea claimed that Warmbier was in a coma because of a food poisoning disease botulism but doctors were unable to find any traces of botulism or the cause of any of his injuries.

Warmbier’s parents were later informed that he had been comatose for almost a year before he was brought back to the US.

Though the ruling by the US District Court held Pyongyang responsible for Warmbier’s death, North Korea has denied any responsibility for the same.

When President Trump was informed of Warmbier’s condition, he immediately ordered the US special representative for North Korea policy, Joseph Yun to rush to Pyongyang to bring Warmbier back. He made the case a key element of his administrations - maximum pressure campaign and reprimanded North Korea for the way they treated the student. During a press conference he hinted at bringing back three other prisoners as well from North Korea as a part of the 2018 summit.

In a statement, after Warmbier was brought back to US, he said the summit with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would have been impossible without Warmbier. He gave credit to Wamrbier’s death for bringing the two nations together during their summit in Singapore 2018.