A
US judge on Monday ordered North Korea to pay a fine of $501 million
over the death of American Otto Warmbier, ruling that the University
student likely suffered torture. 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, unrecognizable to his family and dying
within days of his return. Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the US
District Court for the District of Columbia, 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.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 wrote. She said that North Korea did not submit any
response to the lawsuit, which the family filed under the Foreign
Sovereign Immunities Act, which allows US-based plaintiffs to sue
governments for offences not considered to be covered by diplomatic
immunity. North Korea is highly unlikely to pay the amount voluntarily
and, as one of the world’s most isolated countries, it is believed to
have few assets in the United States that could be seized. But the
verdict comes as President Donald Trump negotiates a deal on North
Korea’s nuclear arsenal, raising the possibility of future US payouts,
which could become entangled by the court-ordered damages. Late Otto
Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, traveled to North
Korea on a tour but did not return home, with the regime pulling him
away at the Pyongyang airport and charging him with crimes against the
state for allegedly taking down a poster in support of leader Kim Jong
Un. The lawsuit said the family was continually advised by the State
Department to stay quiet, believing North Korea would make a demand in
return for Warmbier’s safe release.U.S. judge slams North Korea with a $501m fine for the death of 22-year old American, Otto Warmbier
A
US judge on Monday ordered North Korea to pay a fine of $501 million
over the death of American Otto Warmbier, ruling that the University
student likely suffered torture. 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, unrecognizable to his family and dying
within days of his return. Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the US
District Court for the District of Columbia, 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.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 wrote. She said that North Korea did not submit any
response to the lawsuit, which the family filed under the Foreign
Sovereign Immunities Act, which allows US-based plaintiffs to sue
governments for offences not considered to be covered by diplomatic
immunity. North Korea is highly unlikely to pay the amount voluntarily
and, as one of the world’s most isolated countries, it is believed to
have few assets in the United States that could be seized. But the
verdict comes as President Donald Trump negotiates a deal on North
Korea’s nuclear arsenal, raising the possibility of future US payouts,
which could become entangled by the court-ordered damages. Late Otto
Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, traveled to North
Korea on a tour but did not return home, with the regime pulling him
away at the Pyongyang airport and charging him with crimes against the
state for allegedly taking down a poster in support of leader Kim Jong
Un. The lawsuit said the family was continually advised by the State
Department to stay quiet, believing North Korea would make a demand in
return for Warmbier’s safe release.
