Why Did Otto Warmbier Go To North Korea? Parents Call Country 'Terrorists'

The parents of Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student who died after a prolonged captivity in North Korea, appeared on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday and lashed out at the authoritarian country in their first interview after his death.

“But now we see North Korea claiming to be a victim and that the world is picking on them, and we're here to tell you: North Korea is not a victim. They're terrorists,” Fred Warmbier, Otto’s father, said. “They kidnapped Otto. They tortured him. They intentionally injured him. They are not victims.”

In December 2015, while on a study abroad program in China, Otto Warmbier joined 10 other Americans as part of a North Korea tour.

On New Year's Eve, he allegedly stole a North Korea propaganda poster from a Pyongyang hotel. Otto Warmbier wasn’t allowed to leave the country and was put on trial for "hostile acts against the state," and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in January 2016. He made a tearful apology on television and admitted to stealing, though it is impossible to know if the apology was coerced.

While in captivity, he suffered an injury or sickness that put him in a coma for over a year. In June, the 22-year-old was medically evacuated to the U.S. and died six days later in Cincinnati.

The medical team at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said he suffered from extensive loss of brain tissue that mirrored the injuries of cardiopulmonary arrest. Otto Warmbier was in a state of unresponsive wakefulness before he died.

“We walked over to the plane. The engines are still humming,” Fred Warmbier said. “When we got halfway up the steps, we heard this howling, involuntary, inhuman sound … Otto was on the stretcher across in the plane, and he was jerking violently, making these inhuman sounds.”

Cindy Warmbier, Otto’s mother, was distraught over her son’s treatment.

“They destroyed him,” she said. “I almost passed out but I got it together, and I rode in the ambulance with him, 'cause I did not want him to be alone anymore. He'd been alone for way too long. And we stayed with him and loved him as best as we could.”

North Korea claimed that Otto Warmbier had contracted botulism and that he was given a sleeping pill which led to the coma.

“The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week after his return to the U.S. in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well,” said a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman in June via North Korea’s state media wing. “To make it clear, we are the biggest victim of this incident.”

President Donald Trump tweeted about Warmbier after seeing the clip.

The Tuesday interview comes at a tense time in the relationship between the U.S. and North Korea, who on Monday said Trump’s tweets were a declaration of war. Trump has blasted the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, and called him names such as “Rocket Man.”

North Korea has been aggressively advancing their nuclear weapons and missile programs this year and showcasing their developments through ever advancing tests. This month, North Korea tested their largest nuclear weapon, claiming it was a hydrogen bomb.