US President Donald Trump has considered North Korea guilty for the death of 22-year-old American college student Otto Warmbier. 

“Of course I hold North Korea responsible for Otto’s mistreatment and death,” Trump tweeted, in particular. “Most important, Otto Warmbier will not have died in vain. Otto and his family have become a tremendous symbol of strong passion and strength.”

In 2016, Pyongyang had sentenced Warmbier to 15 years in prison for stealing a propaganda poster in North Korea and attempting to take it out of the country.

But in June 2017, the US government secured his release, although he was by then in a vegetative state, and he died several days later. 

And in December 2018, a US District judge ruled that North Korea must pay $501 million in damages to Otto Warmbier’s parents for their son’s death after spending over a year in captivity there.