Federal Judge Orders North Korea to Pay Warmbiers $500 Million

A federal judge has ordered North Korea to pay $500 million to the parents of Otto Warmbier as part of a wrongful death lawsuit filed earlier this year. U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell ruled Monday that Fred and Cindy Warmbier had successfully shown in court that “North Korea’s torture, hostage taking and extrajudicial killing of Otto was likely, and reasonably certain, to result in injury and death to Otto and to devastate his family.” Otto Warmbier was detained in January 2016 during a five-day tour of North Korea, with authorities claiming he’d stolen a propaganda poster. He was returned to the U.S. “with severe brain damage and in a nonresponsive state” 17 months later, and died less than a week after that. Warmbier's parents filed the wrongful death suit to “stand up to evil” and “to obtain justice for the severe injuries” they suffered at the hands of Kim Jong Un’s regime, according to court documents. It was not immediately clear how or if they plan to collect the compensation from North Korea.