US Student Detained in North Korea Confesses to Hostile Act
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – North Korea has allowed the world to get its first glimpse of Otto Frederick Warmbier, an American student at the University of Virginia, two months after his arrest.
Warmbier is accused of trying to steal a North Korean banner, containing a political slogan that was hanging from the walls of his Pyongyang hotel.
A North Korean official with direct knowledge of Warmbier's case says the 21-year-old held a press conference "at his own request" on Monday morning at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang.
The event provided insight into the bizarre charges the 21-year old is facing in the secretive Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), including allegations he was encouraged to commit the "hostile act" by a purported member of an Ohio church, a secretive university organization, and even the CIA.
The US State Department said it was aware of media reports the US citizen was detained in North Korea but declined to comment further "due to privacy considerations."
In a video supplied to CNN, North Korean guards escorted Warmbier into the room. He was not restrained, and was wearing dark trousers, a light-colored blazer, shirt and tie.
Appearing to read from a statement, Warmbier said: "I committed the crime of taking down a political slogan from the staff holding area of the Yanggakdo International Hotel." It is not known if the student was forced by the DPRK to speak, or whether he was coerced.
"I apologize to each and every one of the millions of the Korean people and I beg that you see how I was used and manipulated," Warmbier said. "My reward for my crime was so much smaller than the rewards that the Z Society and the Friendship United Methodist Church get from the United States Administration."
Warmbier is also seen in the video sobbing and pleading for forgiveness, and bowing deeply to apologize.
"I never, never should have allowed myself to be lured by the United States administration to commit a crime in this country. I wish that the United States administration never manipulate people like myself in the future to commit crimes against foreign countries. I entirely beg you, the people and government of the DPRK, for your forgiveness. Please! I made the worst mistake of my life!"
North Korea accuses Warmbier of surfing the Internet to study different DPRK political slogans and plotting to steal one by folding it up on a thin rectangular metal sheet, and concealing it in his suitcase.
The official says Warmbier put on "quiet shoes" he brought from the United States and just before 2 am on January 1, 2016, entered the staff-only second floor of the hotel intending to steal a sign or banner with a political slogan.
"The slogan was bigger than he had thought. So he couldn't take it away and turned it upside down and deserted (it) on the floor when he had pulled it from the hangers," the official said.
Warmbier, a third-year business major at the University of Virginia originally, was detained on January 2 as he was about to board a plane and leave the country, according to Young Pioneer Tours, the China-based travel company that organized his trip.
A North Korean official with direct knowledge of the case tells CNN Warmbier is accused of meeting last year with a member of the Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio -- a small suburb of Cincinnati.
"[The church member] emphasized that North Korea is an anti-Christian communist state and that communism should be ended," said the North Korean official, who CNN has agreed not to identify.
