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North Korea Handed Otto Warmbier Negotiators $2 Million Medical Bill

The White House will not confirm if the bill has been paid.

North Korean negotiators presented the American delegation sent to retrieve a dying Otto Warmbier with a $2 million medical bill for his medical care while he was held prisoner in the country, The Washington Post reports. Warmbier was said to have fallen into a coma in March 2016, after he was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster in a Pyongyang hotel. The cause of the coma remains unknown, though the Hermit Kingdom has claimed it was caused by sleeping pills and a bout of botulism. Warmbier died shortly after being returned to the United States. The envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier signed an agreement to pay the bill on instructions from President Trump, two people familiar with the situation told the Post. The White House declined to comment on whether it has paid the bill, or whether it has come up at the summits between Trump and Kim Jong Un. “This is outrageous. They killed a perfectly healthy and happy college student and then had the audacity to expect the U.S. government to pay for his care,” said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

Since their son’s death, Warmbier’s parents have publicly condemned Trump’s continued praise of the North Korean dictator. The Warmbiers issued a statement calling out Trump after he said he took Kim “at his word” that he knew nothing about the treatment of their son.

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