A federal judge on Monday ordered North Korea to pay more than USD 500 million in a wrongful death suit filed by the parents of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died shortly after being released from that country.
US District Judge Beryl Howell harshly condemned North Korea for "barbaric mistreatment" of Warmbier in agreeing with his family that the isolated nation should be held liable for his death last year.
She awarded punitive damages and payments covering medical expenses, economic loss and pain and suffering to Fred and Cindy Warmbier, who alleged that their son had been held hostage and tortured.
Warmbier was a University of Virginia student who was visiting North Korea with a tour group when he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in March 2016 on suspicion of stealing a propaganda poster. He died in June 2017, shortly after he returned to the US in a coma and showing apparent signs of torture while in custody.
In holding North Korean responsible, Howell said the government had seized Warmbier for "use as a pawn in that totalitarian state's global shenanigans and face-off with the United States."
"He was blind, deaf, and brain dead when North Korea turned him over to US government officials for his final trip home."