‘Cancer on the Earth’: US student Otto Warmbier’s mother wants more pressure put on North Korea over abductees
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The mother of Otto Warmbier, the young American who died after alleged torture by North Korea, demanded on Friday that there be no let-up in pressure on the government she called “cancer on the Earth”.
Joining families of abducted Japanese who have pressed for years for answers from North Korea, Cindy Warmbier said she did not oppose US President Donald Trump’s diplomacy with Pyongyang but voiced concern for the future.
“North Korea, to me, is a cancer on the Earth. And if we ignore this cancer, it’s not going to go away. It’s going to kill us all,” said Warmbier, who asked to look at pictures of her son so she could maintain her composure.
“Unless we keep the pressure on North Korea, they are not going to change and I am very afraid that we are going to let up on this pressure,” she told the event at the Hudson Institute.
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was imprisoned during a tour of the authoritarian state after being accused of taking down a propaganda poster.
Doctors said he suffered severe brain damage while in detention, fell into a coma and died days after arriving back in the United States in June 2017. He was 22.