UN calls on North Korea to explain case of US student in coma

UN investigators call on North Korea to explain the release of an American student in a coma.

Otto Warmbier (in blue shirt) is taken from the plane to an ambulance at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati. Photo: Reuters.

"I welcome North Korea's release of Warmbier. I am very concerned about his condition. Pyongyang authorities must provide a clear explanation for releasing Warmbier in a coma," Reuters quoted Tomas Ojea Quintana, a UN human rights investigator, as saying today.

Mr. Quintana asked Pyongyang to clarify the reasons and circumstances of Warmbier's release, emphasizing that this incident is a warning about the consequences of foreign prisoners in North Korea not receiving standard medical services.

Otto Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was arrested in early 2016 while visiting North Korea on a tour. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March last year after confessing to trying to steal a propaganda banner from a hotel in Pyongyang.

After returning to the United States, Warmbier was treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Ohio.

North Korean media said the country released Warmbier on humanitarian grounds. Warmbier's parents were told that North Korean officials explained that the student fell into a coma due to poisoning and was given a sleeping pill.

However, the American team of doctors is treatingWarmbier announced yesterdayNo signs of food poisoning were found in this student's body.

According to VNE