The US has accused North Korea of parading a detained American college student before the media “for propaganda purposes” as his parents pleaded for his release.
Otto Warmbier, a third-year economics student at the University of Virginia, on Monday made a stage-managed confession to “severe crimes” against the North Korean state after he was held for allegedly stealing a political banner from a hotel.
John Kirby, a US state department spokesman, told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency: “As a general practice, North Korea arrests and imprisons people for actions that would not give rise to arrests, let alone imprisonment, in the United States, and there’s little doubt that North Korea uses detention as a tool for propaganda purposes.”
In the past, the regime has used detainees as leverage to secure visits by high-profile US politicians, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
There is speculation that Warmbier’s detention could be intended to send a message to the US and other countries as they deliberate tougher sanctions in response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test and rocket launch.
The White House said it was working closely with Sweden, which handles the US’s consular activities in Pyongyang, to find out more about Warmbier’s detention.
“There’s no greater priority for the administration than the welfare and safety of US citizens abroad,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
“Obviously we’re working through the Swedes to learn as much as we can about this individual, and about the circumstances of his detention, and we’re interested in ensuring the safety and welfare of US citizens around the world.”
In a prepared statement read out before TV cameras, Warmbier said a female member of Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, had offered him a used car worth $10,000 if he could return with the banner as a “trophy” from North Korea.
According to North Korean state news agency KCNA, the woman had also promised to pay Warmbier’s mother $200,000 if he was arrested and detained in the North.
The senior pastor at the church told CNN he did not know the person identified by Warmbier in the KCNA story as a deaconess there, adding that Warmbier was not a member of the congregation.
Warmbier was detained on 2 January as he was about to fly out of the country, according to Young Pioneer Tours, an agency specialising in travel to North Korea.
The 21-year-old from Ohio initially appeared composed as he read the statement in which he said he took the banner from a staff-only area of the Yanggakdo Hotel in the capital, where he was staying.
“My crime is very severe and pre-planned,” he said.
He asked for forgiveness, saying the “aim of my task was to harm the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people. This was a very foolish aim,” according to KCNA.
CNN showed footage of a sobbing Warmbier saying: “I have made the worst mistake of my life, but please act to save me.” In another indication that he had been coerced into making the statement, he said he had been impressed by North Korea’s “humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself”.
Warmbier’s “deeply worried” parents said they had not heard from their son since his arrest two months ago, according to a statement issued by the University of Virginia. “Our top priority is to get him back home with us as quickly as possible,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier said.
They said they hoped the fact that their son had issued a “sincere apology for anything that he may have done wrong will now make it possible for the DPRK (North Korea) authorities to allow him to return home”.
The statement urged the North Korean government to take Warmbier’s youth into account and to “make an important humanitarian gesture by allowing him to return to his loved ones”.
Other foreign citizens detained in North Korea have been forced to “confess” to crimes against the state and criticise their own governments, but have retracted their statements after their release.
On its website, the US state department “strongly recommends against all travel” to North Korea, with which Washington does not have diplomatic relations, and warns of the “risk of arrest and long-term detention”.(Justin McCurry)
Link: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/01/us-accuses-north-korea-of-using-detained-student-for-propaganda
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