YEAH SURE

N. Korea: Warmbier’s Death a ‘Mystery to Us as Well’

Claim they “sent him back home on humanitarian grounds.”

A spokesman for North Korea said on Friday that the death of Otto Warmbier, the American who died just after he returned from captivity in the reclusive country, “is a mystery to us as well.” The 22-year-old was arrested while visiting as a tourist and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly stealing a poster with a propaganda slogan. He was brought back to the U.S. with significant brain damage, in what medical personnel called a state of “unresponsive wakefulness.” He died on Monday. “The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week just after his return to the U.S. in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well,” the unnamed spokesman for the foreign ministry said to state media. “Although Warmbier was a criminal who committed a hostile act against the DPRK, we accepted the repeated requests of the present U.S. administration and, in consideration of his bad health, sent him back home on humanitarian grounds.”