Washington: A US judge on Monday ordered North Korea to pay $501 million over the death of American Otto Warmbier, concluding that the university student likely suffered torture.
The penalties, which North Korea is highly unlikely to pay willingly, come in the midst of a diplomatic drive by President Donald Trump, who is eager to reach a potentially landmark deal with leader Kim Jong Un.
The parents of Warmbier sued North Korea in a US court after the 22-year-old was flown back to the United States last year in a coma, unrecognisable to his family and dying within days of his return.
Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the US District Court for Washington, DC, awarded $501,134,683.80 to the family, most of it in punitive damages.
“An American family, the Warmbiers, experienced North Korea’s brutality first-hand when North Korea seized their son to use as a pawn in that totalitarian state’s global shenanigans and face-off with the United States,” she wrote.
“North Korea is liable for the torture, hostage-taking, and extrajudicial killing of Otto Warmbier, and the injuries to his mother and father, Fred and Cindy Warmbier,” she added.
Howell said North Korea did not submit any response to the lawsuit, which the family filed under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a US law that allows lawsuits against foreign governments over offences not considered to be covered by diplomatic immunity. As one of the world’s most isolated countries, North Korea is believed to have few assets in the United States that could be seized to meet the judgment.
But North Korea is seeking to end economic sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme. An accord with Trump raises the possibility of future US assistance, which could become entangled by the court-ordered damages.
Trump, who held a historic summit in June with North Korea, posted on Twitter that he had a briefing on Monday on diplomatic efforts and is “looking forward to my next summit with Chairman Kim!” Senator Robert Portman of Ohio, who had secretly met North Korean officials as he pushed for Warmbier’s release, hailed the court verdict.
“While nothing will bring back Otto Warmbier, who was such a promising young man, I’m glad that North Korea has been rightly held accountable for his death,” he tweeted.
Warmbier, an Ohio native who studied at the University of Virginia, travelled to North Korea on a tour but did not return home. He was pulled away at the Pyongyang airport and charged with crimes against the state for allegedly taking down a poster in support of Kim. — AFP
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