WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The parents of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier sued North Korea on Thursday over their son's death in 2017 following his release from captivity there, according to the lawsuit which said their son was "brutally tortured and murdered."

The wrongful-death suit was filed in U.S. District Court at a diplomatically delicate time, just weeks ahead of an expected meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in also are set to meet on Friday.

“Otto was taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un," his father Fred Warmbier said in a statement.

Warmbier, from Wyoming, Ohio, died at age 22 after being imprisoned in North Korea from January 2016 until he was returned to the United States in a coma. He died a few days later, and an Ohio coroner said the cause was lack of oxygen and blood to the brain.

North Korea blamed botulism and ingestion of a sleeping pill and dismissed torture claims. The coroner who examined Warmbier said he had found no sign of botulism.

The suit by Fred Warmbier and his wife, Cindy, seeks unspecified damages.

"North Korea, which is a rogue regime, took Otto hostage for its own wrongful ends and brutally tortured and murdered him," the lawsuit said.

North Korea does not have an embassy in the United States. A representative of the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York was not immediately available to comment.

Richard Cullen, a family attorney, declined to comment about the suit beyond Fred Warmbier's statement.

Otto Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was part of a travel group. When the group tried to leave North Korea after five days, he was held at the airport.

The filing says Warmbier was forced to make a false statement, confessing to invented charges that he was acting as a spy connected to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Kim, the North Korean leader, is set on Friday to cross the heavily militarized border for the first summit with South Korea, setting the stage for Kim to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in late May or early June.

Just months ago, Trump and Kim traded threats and insults during North Korea's rapid advances in pursuit of nuclear-armed missiles capable of hitting the United States.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.</s>WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The parents of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier sued North Korea on Thursday over their son's death in 2017 following his release from captivity there, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

The wrongful-death suit comes at a diplomatically delicate time, just weeks ahead of an expected meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in also are set to meet on Friday.

"Otto was taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un," his father Fred Warmbier said in a statement. "Kim and his regime have portrayed themselves as innocent, while they intentionally destroyed our son´s life. This lawsuit is another step in holding North Korea accountable for its barbaric treatment of Otto and our family."

Warmbier, a 22-year-old student from Wyoming, Ohio, was imprisoned in North Korea from January 2016 until he returned to the United States in a coma. He died a few days after his return, and an Ohio coroner blamed lack of oxygen and blood to the brain. North Korea blamed botulism and ingestion of a sleeping pill and dismissed torture claims.

"North Korea, which is a rogue regime, took Otto hostage for its own wrongful ends and brutally tortured and murdered him," the wrongful-death lawsuit said.

North Korea does not have an embassy in the United States. A representative of the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York was not immediately available to comment.

Warmbier's attorney, Benjamin Hatch, did not respond to a request for comment about the timing of the lawsuit. (Reporting by Ian Simpson and Ben Klayman; Editing by David Gregorio)</s>The family of Otto Warmbier filed an extraordinary lawsuit against North Korea in federal court Thursday alleging that the 22-year-old college student was “brutally tortured and murdered” by Kim Jong Un’s “criminal” regime during 17 months in captivity.

The 22-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, details in blunt language how the University of Virginia student, a former homecoming king and soccer standout from Cincinnati, was “brutally” abused after being detained on a tour in Pyongyang. He arrived home in a coma after being released last June, dying days later.

The action aims to hold Kim’s regime legally accountable for their son’s death, but the timing also raises significant geopolitical implications, coming weeks before an expected meeting between President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader in late May or early June. It also comes a day before a high-stakes inter-Korea summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which is widely viewed as a crucial prelude to the potential denuclearization talks between Trump and Kim.

Trump has raised Warmbier’s death repeatedly in public statements and made his case a cornerstone of his administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Pyongyang, which the president has credited for bringing Kim to the negotiating table. Trump has pledged to raise human rights in his talks with Kim, but some South Korean officials fear that doing so publicly could complicate the sensitive diplomatic efforts underway.

In a statement, Fred Warmbier said his son was “taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un. Kim and his regime have portrayed themselves as innocent, while they intentionally destroyed our son’s life. This lawsuit is another step in holding North Korea accountable for its barbaric treatment of Otto and our family.”

The Warmbier family is represented by McGuire Woods, and a lead attorney in the case, Richard Cullen, also represents Vice President Mike Pence, who has also spoken out against the North’s treatment of Warmbier and its record of human rights abuses. Fred Warmbier accompanied Pence as part of the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February.

The White House and Pence’s office are supportive of the lawsuit but did not have a role in drafting it, according to a person close to both sides.

Trump “spoke clearly about the pain that all Americans felt when we lost Otto Warmbier. That feeling of loss has not changed,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Although this is a private legal action to which the United States government is not a party, Americans remain committed to honoring Otto’s memory, and we will not forget the suffering of his parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier.”

Trump has eviscerated the North for its treatment of Warmbier, raising his death last fall during speeches at the United Nations in New York and to the South Korea general assembly in Seoul. But more recently, Trump, who last year belittled Kim as “little rocket man,” has tamped down his bellicose rhetoric in a bid to ease tensions ahead of the summit.

“He really has been very open and, I think, very honorable from everything we’re seeing,” Trump told reporters of Kim on Tuesday, during a meeting at the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Critics have warned that Trump, who is eager for a deal on one of his top foreign policy priorities, risks giving up too much to Kim, who announced last week he was freezing nuclear weapons testing and closing down one nuclear site. White House aides said they remain skeptical of Kim’s motives, suggesting he is taking easily reversible steps for public relations value, but Trump has been more enthusiastic about the “progress” that is taking place.

Asked about his praise of Kim during a news conference Tuesday, Trump defended his North Korea strategy, professing that “a lot is happening right now, and I think it’s going to be very positive.”

Trump emphasized the economic sanctions his administration has levied on Pyongyang and said that his goal remains “denuclearization” of North Korea.

“A lot of concessions have already been made,” he said, referring to Pyongyang. “We have made no concessions, despite some of the media saying that I’ve made concessions. I don’t – I haven’t even discussed a concession other than the fact that meeting is a great thing.”

In a phone interview with “Fox & Friends” Thursday, Trump again expressed bewilderment that critics have accused him of giving up too much. “I’ve never given up anything,” he said. “People have to understand the news is so unfair.”

The Kim family has run the country as a totalitarian state since the Korean War armistice in 1953, leaving much of the nation’s 25 million people without sufficient food and electricity. The regime has killed suspected political opponents and is thought to have orchestrated the assassination Kim’s half brother, Kim Jong Nam, at a Malaysian airport last year.

The Trump administration placed the North on the state sponsors of terror list in November, opening the door for the Warmbiers’ lawsuit.

Three Americans remain in captivity in North Korea and Trump has said his administration is working to secure their release. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday as Secretary of State, traveled to Pyongyang over Easter weekend and met with Kim, and he reportedly raised the issue of detainees with North Korean officials.

But Trump has not called their release a precondition of his summit with Kim.

In their lawsuit, Fred and Cynthia Warmbier said their son traveled to the North in Dec. 2015 as part of a program run by Young Pioneer Tours, “a China-based operator that catered to Westerners.”

Otto, according to the complaint, “believed this was an opportunity to understand how people lived in one of the only closed societies in the world.” But when the group attempted to depart after five days, Otto was detained at the Pyongyang airport “without explanation.” Four days later, the North conducted a successful test of a nuclear hydrogen bomb.

Warmbier was used as leverage in the rogue nation’s geopolitical disagreements with the United States, according to the lawsuit.

The legal filing states that North Korean officials forced Warmbier to make a false statement in which he confessed to invented accusations that he was operating as a spy connected to the CIA. He was released 17½ months later in a deep coma, blind, deaf, with a wound on his foot and damage to his teeth, the lawsuit states.

When his parents met him at the Cincinnati airport, Warmbier “had a shaved head, a feeding tube coming out of his nose, was jerking violently and howling, and was completely unresponsive to any of their efforts to comfort him.” North Korean officials disavowed responsibility, asserting that Warmbier had contracted botulism.

The lawsuit asks for a monetary award to be determined by the court for punitive damages related to Warmbier’s mistreatment and death, and the emotional suffering of his family. The money could come from a fund, created by Congress in 2015 and administered by the Justice Department, to compensate victims of state-sponsored terrorism.

Victor Cha, who served as a high-ranking Asia policy official in the George W. Bush administration, said Thursday that the Trump administration should not shy away from raising human rights issues during its negotiations with North Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in south Florida last week, pressed the president to raise with Kim the 13 unresolved cases of Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korean operatives in the 1970s and 1980s. Numerous South Koreans also have been abducted.

“We can never have a normal relationship with North Korea unless the human rights issues are addressed,” said Cha, now a Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We can’t sweep this under the rug.”

Follow the Bangor Daily News on Facebook for the latest Maine news.</s>WASHINGTON — The parents of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier filed a wrongful death lawsuit against North Korea on Thursday, saying its government tortured and killed their son.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking compensation for the death of the 22-year-old, whose plight had compounded tense U.S.-North Korean relations.

Otto Warmbier, who was a student at University of Virginia, was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

While the lawsuit may prove largely symbolic given the difficulty of recovering any damages the court might order, it comes at a delicate time in relations between Washington and Pyongyang. President Donald Trump is planning an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks to address the threat posed by its nuclear weapons, and the leaders of North and South Korea are due to meet Friday.

"Otto was taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un," Fred Warmbier said in a statement.

"Kim and his regime have portrayed themselves as innocent, while they intentionally destroyed our son's life. This lawsuit is another step in holding North Korea accountable for its barbaric treatment of Otto and our family," he said.

The 22-page complaint outlines in blunt terms the adverse fortunes of Warmbier after he went on a five-day tour to North Korea run by a China-based tour operator, prior to taking up a study program in Hong Kong. He sought get a better understanding how people in the North's closed society lived, the lawsuit says.

It says that after his arrest, Warmbier, from Cincinnati, Ohio, was pressured to make a televised confession and then convicted of subversion after a one-hour trial. He was denied communication with his family by any means until in early June 2017 they were informed he was in a coma and had been in that condition for one year.

The lawsuit says that when Warmbier returned, his parents "were stunned to see his condition. Otto was blind and deaf. He had a shaved head, a feeding tube coming out of his nose, was jerking violently and howling, and was completely unresponsive to any of their efforts to comfort him." His once straight teeth were misaligned and he had an unexplained, scarred wound on his left foot.

North Korea claimed that Warmbier had contracted botulism but his physicians in the U.S. found no evidence of that, according to the lawsuit which says that the North's false explanations for Otto's condition demonstrate that is it "covering up its torture and mistreatment of Otto while he was in North Korean custody."

The lawsuit contends that North Korea is liable for Warmbier's wrongful death — describing it as "extrajudicial killing" — and calls for a judgment for both "economic and non-economic compensatory damages" to his parents.

North Korea's mission at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond Thursday to emails and phone calls seeking comment about the lawsuit.

There are still three Americans held in North Korea, and their cases are a continuing source of tense relations between the adversary nations. U.S. officials have said that Mike Pompeo, the outgoing CIA director, raised the issue when he met with Kim on a rare trip to North Korea nearly four weeks ago to prepare for a Trump-Kim summit.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The parents of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier filed a wrongful death lawsuit against North Korea on Thursday, saying its government tortured and killed their son.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking compensation for the death of the 22-year-old, whose plight had compounded tense U.S.-North Korean relations.

Otto Warmbier, who was a student at University of Virginia, was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

While the lawsuit may prove largely symbolic given the difficulty of recovering any damages the court might order, it comes at a delicate time in relations between Washington and Pyongyang. President Donald Trump is planning an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks to address the threat posed by its nuclear weapons, and the leaders of North and South Korea are due to meet Friday.

"Otto was taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un," Fred Warmbier said in a statement.

"Kim and his regime have portrayed themselves as innocent, while they intentionally destroyed our son's life. This lawsuit is another step in holding North Korea accountable for its barbaric treatment of Otto and our family," he said.

The 22-page complaint outlines in blunt terms the adverse fortunes of Warmbier after he went on a five-day tour to North Korea run by a China-based tour operator, prior to taking up a study program in Hong Kong. He sought get a better understanding how people in the North's closed society lived, the lawsuit says.

It says that after his arrest, Warmbier, from Cincinnati, Ohio, was pressured to make a televised confession and then convicted of subversion after a one-hour trial. He was denied communication with his family by any means until in early June 2017 they were informed he was in a coma and had been in that condition for one year.

The lawsuit says that when Warmbier returned, his parents "were stunned to see his condition. Otto was blind and deaf. He had a shaved head, a feeding tube coming out of his nose, was jerking violently and howling, and was completely unresponsive to any of their efforts to comfort him." His once straight teeth were misaligned and he had an unexplained, scarred wound on his left foot.

North Korea claimed that Warmbier had contracted botulism but his physicians in the U.S. found no evidence of that, according to the lawsuit which says that the North's false explanations for Otto's condition demonstrate that is it "covering up its torture and mistreatment of Otto while he was in North Korean custody."

The lawsuit contends that North Korea is liable for Warmbier's wrongful death — describing it as "extrajudicial killing" — and calls for a judgment for both "economic and non-economic compensatory damages" to his parents.

North Korea's mission at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond Thursday to emails and phone calls seeking comment about the lawsuit.

There are still three Americans held in North Korea, and their cases are a continuing source of tense relations between the adversary nations. U.S. officials have said that Mike Pompeo, the outgoing CIA director, raised the issue when he met with Kim on a rare trip to North Korea nearly four weeks ago to prepare for a Trump-Kim summit.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The parents of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier filed a wrongful death lawsuit against North Korea on Thursday, saying its government tortured and killed their son.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking compensation for the death of the 22-year-old, whose plight had compounded tense U.S.-North Korean relations.

Otto Warmbier, who was a student at University of Virginia, was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

While the lawsuit may prove largely symbolic given the difficulty of recovering any damages the court might order, it comes at a delicate time in relations between Washington and Pyongyang. President Donald Trump is planning an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks to address the threat posed by its nuclear weapons, and the leaders of North and South Korea are due to meet Friday.

"Otto was taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un," Fred Warmbier said in a statement.

"Kim and his regime have portrayed themselves as innocent, while they intentionally destroyed our son's life. This lawsuit is another step in holding North Korea accountable for its barbaric treatment of Otto and our family," he said.

The 22-page complaint outlines in blunt terms the adverse fortunes of Warmbier after he went on a five-day tour to North Korea run by a China-based tour operator, prior to taking up a study program in Hong Kong. He sought get a better understanding how people in the North's closed society lived, the lawsuit says.

It says that after his arrest, Warmbier, from Cincinnati, Ohio, was pressured to make a televised confession and then convicted of subversion after a one-hour trial. He was denied communication with his family by any means until in early June 2017 they were informed he was in a coma and had been in that condition for one year.

The lawsuit says that when Warmbier returned, his parents "were stunned to see his condition. Otto was blind and deaf. He had a shaved head, a feeding tube coming out of his nose, was jerking violently and howling, and was completely unresponsive to any of their efforts to comfort him." His once straight teeth were misaligned and he had an unexplained, scarred wound on his left foot.

North Korea claimed that Warmbier had contracted botulism but his physicians in the U.S. found no evidence of that, according to the lawsuit which says that the North's false explanations for Otto's condition demonstrate that is it "covering up its torture and mistreatment of Otto while he was in North Korean custody."

The lawsuit contends that North Korea is liable for Warmbier's wrongful death — describing it as "extrajudicial killing" — and calls for a judgment for both "economic and non-economic compensatory damages" to his parents.

North Korea's mission at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond Thursday to emails and phone calls seeking comment about the lawsuit.

There are still three Americans held in North Korea, and their cases are a continuing source of tense relations between the adversary nations. U.S. officials have said that Mike Pompeo, the outgoing CIA director, raised the issue when he met with Kim on a rare trip to North Korea nearly four weeks ago to prepare for a Trump-Kim summit.</s>WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The parents of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier sued North Korea on Thursday over their son's death in 2017 following his release from captivity there, according to the lawsuit which said their son was "brutally tortured and murdered."

The wrongful-death suit was filed in U.S. District Court at a diplomatically delicate time, weeks ahead of an expected meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in also are set to meet on Friday.

"Otto was taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un," his father Fred Warmbier said in a statement.

Warmbier, from Wyoming, Ohio, died at age 22 after being imprisoned in North Korea from January 2016 until he was returned to the United States in June 2017 in a coma. He died a few days later, and an Ohio coroner said the cause was lack of oxygen and blood to the brain.

North Korea blamed botulism and ingestion of a sleeping pill and dismissed torture claims. The coroner who examined Warmbier said he found no sign of botulism.

The suit by Fred Warmbier and his wife, Cindy, seeks unspecified damages for personal injury.

"North Korea, which is a rogue regime, took Otto hostage for its own wrongful ends and brutally tortured and murdered him," the lawsuit said.

A representative of the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York was not immediately available to comment.

Richard Cullen, a family attorney, declined to comment about the suit beyond Fred Warmbier's statement.

Otto Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was traveling in North Korea with a tour group, and was arrested at Pyongyang airport as he was about to leave. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel, North Korea state media said.

The filing says Warmbier falsely confessed to invented charges that he was acting as a spy connected to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Stewart Baker, a former assistant secretary of homeland security, said North Korea had immunity from lawsuits as a sovereign nation but still might be sued because of its U.S. designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

"But it´s almost impossible to collect any judgment that might be awarded. So it´s doubtful NK will feel sufficiently threatened by the lawsuit to upset the talks. And after all, he (Kim) can settle claims against NK in any US-NK agreement," Baker said by email.

Kim is set on Friday to cross the heavily militarized border for the first summit with South Korea, setting the stage for the North Korean leader to meet with Trump in late May or early June.

Just months ago, Trump and Kim traded threats and insults during North Korea's rapid advances in pursuit of nuclear-armed missiles capable of hitting the United States. (Additional reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The parents of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier filed a wrongful death lawsuit against North Korea on Thursday, saying its government tortured and killed their son.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking compensation for the death of the 22-year-old, whose plight had compounded tense U.S.-North Korean relations.

Otto Warmbier, who was a student at University of Virginia, was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

While the lawsuit may prove largely symbolic given the difficulty of recovering any damages the court might order, it comes at a delicate time in relations between Washington and Pyongyang. President Donald Trump is planning an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks to address the threat posed by its nuclear weapons, and the leaders of North and South Korea are due to meet Friday.

"Otto was taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un," Fred Warmbier said in a statement.

"Kim and his regime have portrayed themselves as innocent, while they intentionally destroyed our son's life. This lawsuit is another step in holding North Korea accountable for its barbaric treatment of Otto and our family," he said.

The 22-page complaint outlines in blunt terms the adverse fortunes of Warmbier after he went on a five-day tour to North Korea run by a China-based tour operator, prior to taking up a study program in Hong Kong. He sought get a better understanding how people in the North's closed society lived, the lawsuit says.

It says that after his arrest, Warmbier, from Cincinnati, Ohio, was pressured to make a televised confession and then convicted of subversion after a one-hour trial. He was denied communication with his family by any means until in early June 2017 they were informed he was in a coma and had been in that condition for one year.

The lawsuit says that when Warmbier returned, his parents "were stunned to see his condition. Otto was blind and deaf. He had a shaved head, a feeding tube coming out of his nose, was jerking violently and howling, and was completely unresponsive to any of their efforts to comfort him." His once straight teeth were misaligned and he had an unexplained, scarred wound on his left foot.

North Korea claimed that Warmbier had contracted botulism but his physicians in the U.S. found no evidence of that, according to the lawsuit which says that the North's false explanations for Otto's condition demonstrate that is it "covering up its torture and mistreatment of Otto while he was in North Korean custody."

The lawsuit contends that North Korea is liable for Warmbier's wrongful death — describing it as "extrajudicial killing" — and calls for a judgment for both "economic and non-economic compensatory damages" to his parents.

North Korea's mission at the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond Thursday to emails and phone calls seeking comment about the lawsuit.

There are still three Americans held in North Korea, and their cases are a continuing source of tense relations between the adversary nations. U.S. officials have said that Mike Pompeo, the outgoing CIA director, raised the issue when he met with Kim on a rare trip to North Korea nearly four weeks ago to prepare for a Trump-Kim summit.</s>American student Otto Warmbier's parents Fred and Cindy Warmbier applaud as U.S. President Donald Trump talks about the death of their son Otto after his arrest in North Korea during the State of the Union address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. January 30, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The parents of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier sued North Korea on Thursday over their son's death in 2017 following his release from captivity there, according to the lawsuit which said their son was "brutally tortured and murdered."

The wrongful-death suit was filed in U.S. District Court at a diplomatically delicate time, just weeks ahead of an expected meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in also are set to meet on Friday.

“Otto was taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un," his father Fred Warmbier said in a statement.

Warmbier, from Wyoming, Ohio, died at age 22 after being imprisoned in North Korea from January 2016 until he was returned to the United States in a coma. He died a few days later, and an Ohio coroner said the cause was lack of oxygen and blood to the brain.

North Korea blamed botulism and ingestion of a sleeping pill and dismissed torture claims. The coroner who examined Warmbier said he had found no sign of botulism.

The suit by Fred Warmbier and his wife, Cindy, seeks unspecified damages.

"North Korea, which is a rogue regime, took Otto hostage for its own wrongful ends and brutally tortured and murdered him," the lawsuit said.

North Korea does not have an embassy in the United States. A representative of the North Korean mission to the United Nations in New York was not immediately available to comment.

Richard Cullen, a family attorney, declined to comment about the suit beyond Fred Warmbier's statement.

Otto Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was part of a travel group. When the group tried to leave North Korea after five days, he was held at the airport.

The filing says Warmbier was forced to make a false statement, confessing to invented charges that he was acting as a spy connected to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Kim, the North Korean leader, is set on Friday to cross the heavily militarized border for the first summit with South Korea, setting the stage for Kim to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in late May or early June.

Just months ago, Trump and Kim traded threats and insults during North Korea's rapid advances in pursuit of nuclear-armed missiles capable of hitting the United States.</s>WASHINGTON – The family of Otto Warmbier filed an extraordinary lawsuit against North Korea in federal court Thursday alleging that the 22-year-old college student was “brutally tortured and murdered” by Kim Jong Un’s “criminal” regime during 17 months in captivity.

The 22-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, details in blunt language how the University of Virginia student, a former homecoming king and soccer standout from Cincinnati, was “brutally” abused after being detained on a tour in Pyongyang. He arrived home in a coma after being released last June, dying days later.

The action aims to hold Kim’s regime legally accountable for their son’s death, but the timing also raises significant geopolitical implications, coming weeks before an expected meeting between President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader in late May or early June. It also comes a day before a high-stakes inter-Korea summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which is widely viewed as a crucial prelude to the potential denuclearization talks between Trump and Kim.

Trump has raised Warmbier’s death repeatedly in public statements and made his case a cornerstone of his administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Pyongyang, which the president has credited for bringing Kim to the negotiating table. Trump has pledged to raise human rights in his talks with Kim, but some South Korean officials fear that doing so publicly could complicate the sensitive diplomatic efforts underway.

In a statement, Fred Warmbier said his son was “taken hostage, kept as a prisoner for political purposes, used as a pawn and singled out for exceptionally harsh and brutal treatment by Kim Jong Un. Kim and his regime have portrayed themselves as innocent, while they intentionally destroyed our son’s life. This lawsuit is another step in holding North Korea accountable for its barbaric treatment of Otto and our family.”

The Warmbier family is represented by McGuire Woods, and a lead attorney in the case, Richard Cullen, also represents Vice President Mike Pence, who has also spoken out against the North’s treatment of Warmbier and its record of human rights abuses. Fred Warmbier accompanied Pence as part of the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February.

The White House and Pence’s office are supportive of the lawsuit but did not have a role in drafting it, according to a person close to both sides.

Trump “spoke clearly about the pain that all Americans felt when we lost Otto Warmbier. That feeling of loss has not changed,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Although this is a private legal action to which the United States government is not a party, Americans remain committed to honoring Otto’s memory, and we will not forget the suffering of his parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier.”

Trump has eviscerated the North for its treatment of Warmbier, raising his death last fall during speeches at the United Nations in New York and to the South Korea general assembly in Seoul. But more recently, Trump, who last year belittled Kim as “little rocket man,” has tamped down his bellicose rhetoric in a bid to ease tensions ahead of the summit.

“He really has been very open and, I think, very honorable from everything we’re seeing,” Trump told reporters of Kim on Tuesday, during a meeting at the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Critics have warned that Trump, who is eager for a deal on one of his top foreign policy priorities, risks giving up too much to Kim, who announced last week he was freezing nuclear weapons testing and closing down one nuclear site. White House aides said they remain skeptical of Kim’s motives, suggesting he is taking easily reversible steps for public relations value, but Trump has been more enthusiastic about the “progress” that is taking place.

Asked about his praise of Kim during a news conference Tuesday, Trump defended his North Korea strategy, professing that “a lot is happening right now, and I think it’s going to be very positive.”

Trump emphasized the economic sanctions his administration has levied on Pyongyang and said that his goal remains “denuclearization” of North Korea.

“A lot of concessions have already been made,” he said, referring to Pyongyang. “We have made no concessions, despite some of the media saying that I’ve made concessions. I don’t – I haven’t even discussed a concession other than the fact that meeting is a great thing.”

In a phone interview with “Fox & Friends” Thursday, Trump again expressed bewilderment that critics have accused him of giving up too much. “I’ve never given up anything,” he said. “People have to understand the news is so unfair.”

The Kim family has run the country as a totalitarian state since the Korean War armistice in 1953, leaving much of the nation’s 25 million people without sufficient food and electricity. The regime has killed suspected political opponents and is thought to have orchestrated the assassination Kim’s half brother, Kim Jong Nam, at a Malaysian airport last year.

The Trump administration placed the North on the state sponsors of terror list in November, opening the door for the Warmbiers’ lawsuit.

Three Americans remain in captivity in North Korea and Trump has said his administration is working to secure their release. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday as Secretary of State, traveled to Pyongyang over Easter weekend and met with Kim, and he reportedly raised the issue of detainees with North Korean officials.

But Trump has not called their release a precondition of his summit with Kim.

In their lawsuit, Fred and Cynthia Warmbier said their son traveled to the North in Dec. 2015 as part of a program run by Young Pioneer Tours, “a China-based operator that catered to Westerners.”

Otto, according to the complaint, “believed this was an opportunity to understand how people lived in one of the only closed societies in the world.” But when the group attempted to depart after five days, Otto was detained at the Pyongyang airport “without explanation.” Four days later, the North conducted a successful test of a nuclear hydrogen bomb.

Warmbier was used as leverage in the rogue nation’s geopolitical disagreements with the United States, according to the lawsuit.

The legal filing states that North Korean officials forced Warmbier to make a false statement in which he confessed to invented accusations that he was operating as a spy connected to the CIA. He was released 17 1/2 months later in a deep coma, blind, deaf, with a wound on his foot and damage to his teeth, the lawsuit states.

When his parents met him at the Cincinnati airport, Warmbier “had a shaved head, a feeding tube coming out of his nose, was jerking violently and howling, and was completely unresponsive to any of their efforts to comfort him.” North Korean officials disavowed responsibility, asserting that Warmbier had contracted botulism.

The lawsuit asks for a monetary award to be determined by the court for punitive damages related to Warmbier’s mistreatment and death, and the emotional suffering of his family. The money could come from a fund, created by Congress in 2015 and administered by the Justice Department, to compensate victims of state-sponsored terrorism.

Victor Cha, who served as a high-ranking Asia policy official in the George W. Bush administration, said Thursday that the Trump administration should not shy away from raising human rights issues during its negotiations with North Korea.
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“We can never have a normal relationship with North Korea unless the human rights issues are addressed,” said Cha, now a Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We can’t sweep this under the rug.”
Fred and Cindy Warmbier, the parents of detained American student Otto Warmbier, files a lawsuit against North Korea government, stating that Otto was "tortured and murdered", and also claimed that the DPRK "intentionally destroyed" their son's life.