Of course, everyone knew that outside the stage-managed capital lay starving villages and concentration camps. But that doesn't mean that North Korea doesn't psychologically torture detained Americansin fact, it has always tried to bludgeon them into mental submission. In the end, however, despite all the mystery still surrounding Otto, it is essential to remember two facts that endure as unyielding as gravestones: Otto's death and the grief of those he left behind. It "looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth". In my professional opinion, some force was obviously applied to them after his May 27, 2015, appointment. The likelihood of conflict grew so real that an American diplomat warned a Seoul-dwelling friend in confidence to move his assets out of South Korea. Two North Korean doctors explained that Otto had arrived at the hospital this way more than a year before and showed as proof thick handwritten charts and several brain scans that revealed Otto had suffered extensive brain damage. Beforehand, I heard some reporting that he was beaten, but it wasn't from State or Intel, who never corroborated that, before or after the fact. Whatever happened during those lost hours, when Gratton returned to his and Otto's room, around 4:30 A.M. on January 1, Otto was already snoozing. He had been arrested in North Korea for allegedly trying to steal a propaganda poster from a restricted area in January 2016 while visiting the country on a sightseeing tour. The minister who was responsible for Otto was demoted and eventually disappeared, according to Michael Madden, a North Korea analyst who tracks its leadership. But they used psychological tactics, saying that I could not go home and that I will be held for 15 years.. An American court has ruled that the family of Otto Warmbier are owed in excess of $500 million by the North Korean government. The team knew they would soon have to face the heartbreak of turning Otto over to his parents. That day, Yun engaged in several rounds of intense negotiations with North Korean officials, trying to win Otto's freedom. And since he would already be traveling to Hong Kong to study abroad, he decided he wanted to witness the world's most repressive nation: North Korea. Cindy told news outlets that she imagined that might mean Otto was asleep or in a medically induced coma. One of their last glimpses of him had been from a televised news conference in Pyongyang, during which their boya sweet, brainy 21-year-old scholarship student at the University of Virginiaconfessed to undermining the regime at the behest of the unlikely triumvirate of an Ohio church, a university secret society, and the American government by stealing a propaganda poster. Since the beginning of 2018, North Korea, hamstrung by sanctions and spooked by full-on preparations for war in Otto's name, had been trying to reset relations with the outside world. When Trump learned of Otto's condition, he doubled down on the order for Yun to rush to Pyongyang and bring Otto home. The day after the Warmbiers went on national television to declare that Otto had been systematically tortured and intentionally injured, a coroner who had examined Otto, Dr. Lakshmi Kode Sammarco, unexpectedly called a press conference. Weeks later North Korea released a video of Warmbier confessing in great detail to the theft and begging for forgiveness. Pueblo to restaurants. But what happened to Warmbierthe American college student who was. The three Korean-Americans, all detained on charges of espionage or hostile acts against the state, had had almost no contact with the outside world since being arrested, and they all cried as they dictated messages for their families to Yun. You may want to read Twitters cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. But her findings, and those of the doctors who had attended Otto, contradicted the Warmbiers' assertions. 'It looked like someone had taken pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth The coroner found no evidence of bludgeoning on Otto's body. "We don't know what happened to him, and this is the bottom line," she said. His body was in excellent condition, Sammarco said. What incentive would they have to lose a valuable bargaining chip, especially when they had never been so thoughtless before? ITAR-TASS News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo, a classmate later wrote in a local newspaper. Who is to blame for Otto Warmbier's death? The once vital young man was severely brain-damaged. When Robert King went to work at the State Department on January 2, 2016, during the Obama administration, he was expecting a boring day churning through e-mails accumulated over the holidays. I remember Otto as having straight teeth without any significant misalignment or crowding, said Dr. Murray Dock, a pediatric dentist in Cincinnati, Ohio, who was Otto Warmbiers dentist between 2011 and 2013. As Toms Ojea Quintana, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights for North Korea, said, Otto's rights were violated on every level.. He was one of those special young people we praise as all-American. In the lawsuit the Warmbiers filed in April against North Korea for Otto's death, they continued to assert evidence that he was repeatedly beaten. Nine charts which tell you all you need to know about North Korea, Woman shot dead after pulling into wrong driveway, Man charged with shooting boy who knocked wrong door, Award-winning photo turns out to be AI creation, US accuses Brazil's Lula of parroting war propaganda, FBI makes arrests over US Chinese 'police stations', Man jailed for sex assault on Spanish Big Brother. This week, a federal judge ordered North Korea to pay the parents of Otto Warmbier of Wyoming and their son's estate more than $501 million for fatally mistreating him and causing the death of. In advance of the rescue, Portman had informed her that Otto had been unconscious for months, according to the North Koreans, though no one knew the exact extent of the injury. However, there was talk Otto's dentists claimed his lower teeth didn't match the placement of previous dental X-rays. The likelihood that his brain damage happened immediately after the sentencing, however, raises the possibility that he may have attempted suicide. From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. The international community is appealing for all incendiary rhetoric to be toned down. Despite how Trump and his administration boosted the narrative that Otto was physically tortured, however, the evidence was not clear-cut. For the next two months, until his forced confession, Otto would probably have been relentlessly interrogated; American missionary Kenneth Bae said he was questioned up to 15 hours a day. All of which means that the full truth of what transpired is likely hoarded only by Kim Jong-un and his most trusted lieutenants, and that it may never get out. Bergman said he hoped he would not have to travel to Pyongyang 99 more times. 2. There is no question that North Korea is a terrorist state and should be put back on the U.S. list of sponsors of state terrorism, and soon. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. It's impossible to say whether or not Trump had seen or parsed the nuances of the intelligence reports before he tweeted about Fred Warmbier's Fox interview, supporting that Otto had been physically tortured. A congressional staffer familiar with the intelligence reports said, Before we had Otto back in the United States, we just didn't know what was going on there. In Seoul, one North Korean, who had endured three years at a low-level camp for trying to flee the country, wept as she told me: North Korean prisons are actually hell. His head was shaved, he was blind and deaf, his arms and legs were "totally deformed" and he had a huge scar on his foot, he said. Then, the next morning, Flueckiger and Yun were driven to a hotel in downtown Pyongyang, where the three other American prisoners were marched into a conference room one by one. The campaign to make Otto a symbol of North Korea's cruelty was psychological preparation to justify military operations.. The U.S. imposed a travel ban on North Korea following Otto Warmbiers death in June 2017. Read about our approach to external linking. The story I uncovered was stranger and sadder than anyone had known. The KCNA report said several American doctors reportedly involved in the health checkup and treatment of Warmbier submitted medical observation to a federal district court in Washington, D.C., on October 10 to the effect that he had died of torture, alleging that they had concluded his teeth were dislocated and his gum bone damaged by physical force from outside.. Can you tell me how Otto's brain is functioning? she asked. During the year after highlighting the story that Otto was physically tortured, Trump praised Fred and Cindy as good friends and invited them to high-profile events. Never. The official said he did not know of the Trump administration having other sources of information about Otto being beaten. I don't think it ever crossed his desk, because I think he would have actually liked it.. And no matter how nice his suite, it was also a cell, for he would have been allowed out only for an occasional escorted walk. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Hundreds of people lined the streets to witness Otto's hearse, and many made the W hand gesture representing his high school. When Otto was returned in a vegetative state, Fred refocused his zeal on getting justice for him. Warmbier's family said. So Yun traveled to Norway to meet several high-level North Korean officials on the sidelines of secret nuclear negotiations, conducted by retired diplomats to get around the lack of official contact. South Korean intelligence, generally considered the spy agency with the best sources in North Korea, found no confirmation that Otto was beaten. There is also evidence indicating a loss of bone. Flueckiger and Yun were shuttled to Friendship Hospital, a private facility that often treats foreign diplomats living in Pyongyang. The Cincinnati Enquirer said it had obtained a copy of a coroner's report on Otto Warmbier, based on an external examination, which revealed several small scars but nothing which indicated torture. The psychic trauma of all this has sent previous detainees into crushing depressions, and even driven some to attempt suicide. Two days after the return, Fred Warmbier took the stage at Otto's high school. No meaningful response. FILE - Family members watch as Kenneth Bae, right, freed during a top-secret mission, talks to reporters after he arrived at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, Nov. 8, 2014. A feeding tube infiltrated his nostrils. In the footage of his news-conference confession, Otto looked physically healthy, but as he sobbed for his freedom, he was obviously in extreme mental distress. Ultimately, they declined to comment for this story. Even though the state imprisons and sometimes executes citizens trying to flee it, it permits thousands of foreigners to visit every year on tightly controlled toursone of the few ways its sanction-crippled economy makes cash. Three days after the Times published its claims, The Washington Post also cited an anonymous senior American official rejecting reports that Otto had been beaten in custody. They said his teeth looked as though "someone had taken a pair of pliers and re-arranged" the bottom row, and said his arms and legs were "totally deformed." . By April, however, relations had thawed to the point that Yun was able to persuade Secretary Tillerson to let him discuss freeing Otto face-to-face with senior North Korean officials, as long as no broader diplomacy was done. The Untold Story of Otto Warmbier, American Hostage President Trump hailed him as a catalyst of the summit with Kim Jong-Un. The Warmbiers grew frustrated that the world's most powerful nation could not take more direct, immediate action to help their son. Then the U.S. motorcade and the ambulance raced directly to the airport, through open security gates, and onto the tarmac where the Gulfstream waited. An American boy Otto Warmbier travelled to North Korea on a college trip, very few Americans get access to go here, they were limited to what they saw, a lot of things were restricted and some if not most of it staged. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Within the electrified fences of many of North Korea's notorious prison camps dwell up to 120,000 souls, condemned for infractions as minor as watching banned South Korean soap operas. Upon learning that this article did not support claims that Otto was beaten, and included the theory that he may have attempted suicidea possibility that the family, through their lawyer, dismissed categoricallythe Warmbiers withdrew a statement that they had previously provided. But if the maverick boldness that the administration displayed in rescuing Otto represents the best of Trumpism, what followed once it was clear the reports were flawed encapsulates its troubling disregard for facts when a dubious narrative supports its interests. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. There was no physical [force] used on me, Bae said. It was very hard to leave them behind., Early in Trump's presidency, Fred appeared on Fox News, reportedly because he knew that the president obsessively watched the network, to complain that the State Department wasn't doing enough for his son. At least two Americans imprisoned in North Korea have attempted suicide. Otto's parents weren't thrilled by the trip, but as his mother later explained, Why would you say no to a kid like this?. Flueckiger wondered, for the body looked so different from the pictures he had seen of the homecoming king. Nothing in my treatment of Otto would have led me to expect this sort of change as a result of natural occurrence., Warmbiers dentist between 2014 and 2015, Todd Williams, also of Cincinnati, Ohio, declared Otto had excellent teeth with an excellent bite between the upper and lower teeth. I don't believe Otto was physically tortured, Andrei Lankov said in his office in Seoul. Then the radio chatter faded out, and only static filled the airwaves for ten minutes. It is for this paucity of evidence that, though the public discourse about Otto's death has long been dominated by talk of beatings, there have been doubts among North Korea experts that the intelligence reports were correct. Fred graphically described damage to Otto's teeth and foot as the result of torture and demanded that the administration punish the dictatorship. The human-rights abuses within have been extensively documented, creating a compelling case that they are among the worst places in the world. They didn't receive a no from North Korea, which they knew from past diplomacy with them was often a signal of positive interest. The reports also show that a heavy pressure was applied to his teeth, resulting in bone loss after his arrest in North Korea. He was draped in the linen blazer that his son had worn during his forced confession. I love you, Otto, she said, then sang Happy Birthday.. But the North Koreans were still not ready to release Otto. Yun explained, The North Koreans said we could send a delegation to see Otto, but that we would have to discuss some of the conditions of getting him out once we got there. And so Yun raced to assemble a diplomatic and medical team to save Otto. At a top-ranked Ohio high school, he boasted the second-best grades. The college student had his bottom tooth twisted backward compared to his prior dental records. The goal wasn't to extract the truth but to construct the fabulation that Otto read off handwritten notes at his news conference. First published on September 27, 2017 / 8:48 PM. Coroner's report reveals Otto Warmbier's cause of death, but mysteries remain September 27, 2017 / 8:48 PM / CBS/AP CINCINNATI -- A coroner said Wednesday her office could not determine what led. The Warmbier family believed their son was physically tortured. He was one of those special young people we praise as all-American. It looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and re-arranged his bottom teeth, as Fred would say. Sadly, he passed away on June 19, 2017, at the age of 22. In the meantime, Flueckiger cradled Otto, changed his diaper, and whispered to him that he was free, like a father soothing his baby. 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