A US court on Monday ordered Pyongyang to pay $501 million in damages for the torture and death of U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, who died in 2017 shortly after being released from a North Korea prison.<\/p>\n
Warmbier\u2019s parents sued North Korea in April over their son\u2019s death. The 22-year-old student died days after he was returned to the United States in a coma, and an Ohio coroner said the cause of death was lack of oxygen and blood to the brain.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorth Korea is liable for the torture, hostage taking, and extrajudicial killing of Otto Warmbier, and the injuries to his mother and father, Fred and Cindy Warmbier,\u201d Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia said in her ruling.<\/p>\n
Pyongyang has blamed botulism and ingestion of a sleeping pill for Warmbier\u2019s death and dismissed torture claims.Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement they had promised their son justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thankful that the United States has a fair and open judicial system so that the world can see that the Kim regime is legally and morally responsible for Otto\u2019s death,\u201d the Warmbiers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put ourselves and our family through the ordeal of a lawsuit and public trial because we promised Otto that we will never rest until we have justice for him,\u201d they said. \u201cToday\u2019s thoughtful opinion by Chief Judge Howell is a significant step on our journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howell\u2019s ruling was a default judgment, a type of decision entered against a party that does not appear in court. Default judgments against foreign defendants are often difficult to collect.<\/p>\n
U.S. courts can compensate default judgment holders by ordering the seizure of funds or other assets located within the country, but that is unlikely in this case because sanctions prohibit North Korea from accessing the U.S. financial system.The ruling comes at a sensitive time in U.S.-North Korea diplomatic relations, as the two countries negotiate the dismantling of Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear weapons program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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