U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday stated the USA did now not pay any cash to North Korea because it sought the release of Otto Warmbier, a day after a document said Trump had accepted a $2 million invoice from Pyongyang for the American scholar’s care.
“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, no longer Million Dollars, not anything else,” Trump wrote in a tweet. The Washington Post stated on Thursday that Trump had an accredited charge of a $2 million invoice from Pyongyang to cowl its care of the unconscious university scholar, who was held in a North Korean prison for 17 months until June 2017.
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student from Ohio traveling North Korea as a visitor, became imprisoned in January 2016. He turned into sentenced to fifteen years of arduous labor for allegedly trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan from his hotel, North Korean kingdom media stated.
Warmbier died six days after his release from North Korea. An Ohio coroner said Warmbier died from a loss of oxygen and blood to his brain. North Korea, which has disregarded claims that it tortured the student, blamed food poisoning and a sleeping pill.
The Treasury Department received the invoice from North Korea, and it remained unpaid through 2017, the Post stated. It becomes not clear whether the management paid the bill later.
Trump’s tweet did no longer deal with whether any settlement had been made, and representatives for the White House did now not right away reply to requests for remark.
Asked whether or not it changed into accurate to mention that no cash turned into paid to North Korea in the Warmbier case, a State Department spokeswoman stated by using email: “We decline to comment.”
The Treasury Department did no longer respond to a request for comment.
The Post said an invoice became handed to then-State Department envoy Joseph Yun hours before Warmbier turned into flown out of Pyongyang in a coma on June thirteen, 2017.
