Student freed by N. Korea in hospital

‘Severe neurological injury’

WYOMING, OHIO • An American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea and returned to his home state of Ohio in a coma suffered a “severe neurological injury,” a hospital spokeswoman said Thursday. Otto Warmbier is in stable condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with his mother by his side, hospital spokeswoman Kelly Martin said.

His father, Fred Warmbier, said he does not believe North Korea’s explanation that the coma resulted from botulism and a sleeping pill. He said there was no reason for North Korea to keep his 22-year-old son’s condition a secret and deny him top medical care.

Fred Warmbier called his son’s return bittersweet.

“Relief that Otto is now home in the arms of those who love him and anger that he was so brutally treated for so long,” he said at a news conference at Wyoming High School, where Warmbier graduated in 2013. Blue-andwhite ribbons in the school’s colours were tied around the trees and utility poles all the way along the city’s main road in a show of support.

To honour his son, Fred Warmbier wore the same jacket Otto wore when North Korea presented him before the media in March, 2016, at an event where he tearfully confessed that he tried to steal a propaganda banner while visiting the country.

Fred Warmbier said that he doesn’t know why North Korea released his son but that the country doesn’t do anything out of “the kindness of their hearts.” He called on the country to release other Americans held there.

“There’s no excuse for the way the North Koreans treated our son,” he said.

Warmbier also accused North Korea of luring Americans to the country with a Chinese tour company making the false promise they will never be detained.

He said he received “a very nice phone call” Wednesday from President Donald Trump, who said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson worked hard to bring Otto home.

Fred Warmbier told Fox News on Wednesday that Otto was “terrorized and brutalized” during his 17-month detention and has been in a coma for more than a year.

“The day after he was sentenced, he went into a coma,” the father said in an interview scheduled to air Thursday night. He said he and his wife, Cindy, only learned of their son’s condition last week.