When Yun came in, Pyongyang was still refusing to speak to the Obama administration, but shortly after the day of Trump's inauguration, the mild-mannered but steely former ambassador established contact with the New York Channel about releasing Otto. In a white two-story home flying the Stars and Stripes, Otto grew up the eldest child of a Republican family. At a top-ranked Ohio high school, he boasted the second-best grades. Hundreds of people lined the streets to witness Otto's hearse, and many made the W hand gesture representing his high school. Of the dozen experts I spoke to, only a single one thought there was even a remote likelihood that he had been beaten. The centerpiece of this diplomacy was a charm offensive at the February Gamesdeploying squads of cherubic cheerleaders singing folk songs about re-unification, and Kim Jong-un's smiley sister shaking hands with world leaders. US student Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years in a North Korean labor camp in 2016. The lack of physical evidence of beatings was widely publicized. In Manhattan, the North Koreans informed Yun that Otto was unconscious. Halfway up the airplane's stairs, over the whine of the still-cycling engines, Fred later said, he heard a guttural inhuman howling and wondered what it was. As the director of the hospital directly involved in medical treatment of Warmbier, I cannot repress my indignation over the American total distortion of the truth regarding his death, the report said. After doctors confirmed to Fred and Cindy that their son would never be cognizant again, they directed that his feeding tube be removed. The final go-ahead from the State Department arrived during an inconspicuous Friday lunch. This story originally appeared in the August 2018 issue with the title "American Hostage: The Untold Story of Otto Warmbier.". To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. When the time came for him to give a speech at his high school graduation, instead of orating grandiosely, he admitted to struggling to find words. Tears spangled his eyes as he said to the assembled reporters, Otto, I love you, and I'm so crazy about you, and I'm so glad you're home. He blamed the Obama administration for failing to win Otto's release sooner, and thanked Trump. His parents did not cite a specific cause of death but blamed. The minister who was responsible for Otto was demoted and eventually disappeared, according to Michael Madden, a North Korea analyst who tracks its leadership. Instead, a red-alert situation confronted him. They say he contracted botulism while in prison but US doctors found no trace of this. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. 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. 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. After an uncomfortably long time, Gratton noticed that the officers were intently scrutinizing the documents. Now Portman and his staff scrambled to prepare the homecoming, rerouting the plane from Cincinnati's international airport to a smaller municipal one, which would be more private. Two days after the return, Fred Warmbier took the stage at Otto's high school. Jeffrey Fowle, a father of three children in Ohio, was detained in North Korea for six months for leaving a Bible in a restaurant in Pyongyang during his tour of the country in 2014. They were apparently not even correct about where Otto was or when he was beaten, for God's sake. Anoxic-Ischemic encephalopathy is medical terminology for brain damage resulting from the lack of oxygen fed into the brain by the blood stream. Court Papers Hint at Warmbiers Treatment in North Korea. To keep foreigners entertained, the 47-story tower is furnished with five restaurants (one of which revolves), a bar, a sauna, a massage parlor, and its own bowling alley. Meanwhile, the American military made preparations for a possible conflict. Phoenix Air immediately rerouted its best aircrafta luxury Gulfstream G-III jet upgraded into a flying E.R.from Senegal to its headquarters, outside Atlanta, where Flueckiger and his team got it loaded and airborne again in less than two hours on Saturday. Finally, a voice speaking perfect English guided the plane's landing in Pyongyang. 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. . The story of Otto being brutally beaten had outlived its usefulness. But whatever they believe, what is clear is that they are loving parents, dealing with an unimaginably tragic loss, who have been striving to honor Otto's legacy. But what happened to Warmbierthe American college student who was sent home brain-damaged from North Koreais even more shocking than anyone knew. I believed him, Richardson told me. US President Donald Trump, who is known to watch Fox and Friends, tweeted that it had been "a great interview", and that "Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea". But once their nationalities were established, they were sent to the green-roofed guesthouse. 1. Will we ever know what happened to Otto Warmbier? South Korean intelligence, generally considered the spy agency with the best sources in North Korea, found no confirmation that Otto was beaten. You can make a difference here., Once they got back to the guesthouse, Yun found himself once more arguing with North Korean officials for Otto's freedom. And The New York Times had written that the government had obtained intelligence reports in recent weeks indicating that Mr. Warmbier had been repeatedly beaten while in North Korean custody, citing an anonymous senior American official. Financial losses incurred by Otto Warmbier and his parents are estimated to range between $1,993,386 and $6,038,308, according to an expert statement submitted to the court by James V. Koch, an economics professor at Old Dominion University. In the meantime, Flueckiger cradled Otto, changed his diaper, and whispered to him that he was free, like a father soothing his baby. In early June, Trump and Kim shook hands in front of the red, white, and blue of both nations' flags. Within 48 hours of his return, Otto had a fever that had risen to 104 degrees. Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), shown in a March 2016 photo after his sentencing. Listening to him deliberate on this, he sounded to me a lot more like a dad. But, the official said, we were very scared, for though the North Koreans eventually said the plane would be able to land, no one knew what kind of welcome the Americans would receive on the ground. This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Knowing that he would soon be laboring over spreadsheets, he decided he wanted an adventure over his winter break. I was 90 percent sure they would release him, and that this call would bring an action forcing them to do so.. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. 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. Through intelligence sources, government officials, and senior-level North Korean defectors, and drawing on the experiences of the 15 other Americans who since 1996 have been imprisoned in North Koreasome in the same places as Ottoit is possible to describe Otto's probable day-to-day life there. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, North Korea has denied torturing Warmbier, U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund, detained in North Korea for six months for leaving a Bible in a restaurant. And later that month, Trump designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, which would allow harsher future sanctions, stating, As we take this action today, our thoughts turn to Otto Warmbier., Being imprisoned was lonely, isolating, and frustrating, Kenneth Bae, an American whod been detained in North Korea, told me. When Otto finally opened his eyes again, he likely found himself at a guesthouse, which is where the State Department believed he was probably kept. American student Otto Frederick Warmbier, center, arrives at a court for his trial in Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, on March 16, 2015. . But Otto would never recover to tell his side of the story. Discovering the truth of events that happen in North Korea is a task that even American intelligence agencies struggle with. The once vital young man was severely brain-damaged. The team knew they would soon have to face the heartbreak of turning Otto over to his parents. Mrs Warmbier said North Korea sent him home because "they didn't want him to die on their soil". Still, afterward, his handlers reminded him, It takes 100 hacks to take down a tree.. And in this political age, where truth seems enslaved to the agendas of the powerful, it is important to consider what story we believe and why. As the Trump administration and North Korea spun Otto's story for their own ends, I spent six months reportingfrom Washington, D.C., to Seoultrying to figure out what had actually happened to him. Warmbier, a 22-year-old American, traveled to North Korea in December 2015 and was taken into custody by North Korean officials at the airport Jan. 2, 2016. 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. Of course, everyone knew that outside the stage-managed capital lay starving villages and concentration camps. And both the senior-level American officials and the congressional staffer confirmed that the government never shared with them definitive evidence that Otto was beaten. Flueckiger wondered, for the body looked so different from the pictures he had seen of the homecoming king. Fred Warmbier, right, listens as Cindy Warmbier speaks of their son Otto Warmbier, an American who died last year, days after his release from captivity in North Korea, May 3, 2018, at the U.N. A person believed to be Otto Warmbier is transferred from a medical transport airplane to an awaiting ambulance at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 13, 2017. The following morning at the airport, the two tired friends were the last Young Pioneers to present their passports, side by side at a single desk. The North Koreans have never tortured a white guy physically. 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