Trump believes Kim had no prior knowledge of Otto Warmbier's mortal injuries

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un failed to secure a breakthrough in their second summit concerning North Korea's nuclear program, but there appeared to be little antagonism between the two men, judging by the U.S. president's remarks concerning former prisoner Otto Warmbier.

Trump was asked Thursday about Warmbier, an American college student who died in his native Ohio in June 2017 just days after being released from a North Korean prison.

"I know the Warmbier family very well. I think they're an incredible family," said Trump. "What happened is horrible. I really believe something horrible happened to him, and I really don't think the top leadership knew about it."

Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was captured after allegedly stealing a poster and held for more than 17 months in North Korea. He had been sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour, but American officials rushed to retrieve him after learning of his serious medical condition.

His family said shortly before his death that they had been told he fell into a coma shortly after his March 2016 sentencing in North Korea. U.S. doctors, after his return home, said Warmbier had suffered extensive loss of brain tissue and "profound weakness and contraction" of his muscles, arms and legs.

The North Korean regime explained the death at the time by claiming Warmbier's condition worsened after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill, findings panned by doctors in Cincinnati.

Trump speaks to death of Otto Warmbier

6 years ago

Duration 1:24

U.S. President doesn't believe Kim Jong-un had prior knowledge of Warmbier injuries

On Wednesday, Trump seemed to suggest that Kim couldn't possibly know what was happening at all of the country's labour camps and prisons.

"He felt badly about it," said Trump of Kim's reaction to Warmbier's death. "He knew the case very well, but he knew it later. And you've got a lot of people, big country, a lot of people. And in those prisons and those camps you have a lot of people. And some really bad things happened to Otto, some really, really bad things. He tells me that he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word."

'Detestable' comments: Trump

Frequent Trump critic Adam Schiff of California called the president's comments "detestable," the congressman adding that it "hearkens back to Trump's duplicitous acceptances of denials from other dictators."

Schiff's comments likely referred to Trump's reactions to statements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump said at the Helsinki summit with Putin last year that the Russian leader was "extremely strong and powerful in his denial" of interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.

"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," said Trump.

Months later, Trump was stressing that bin Salman "vehemently" denied knowing about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the Washington Post. It's been determined Khashoggi was killed in Turkey by several men with connections to the Saudi regime, in what appeared to be a planned operation.

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez said in an interview with CNN that it does "enormous damage" to the perception of the U.S. administration around the world to not raise the issue of human rights when dealing with North Korea. In the same segment, former senator Rick Santorum, a staunch Republican, said it was "reprehensible" for Trump to give "cover" for Kim's handling of prisoners.

Former Trump administration official Nikki Haley and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who helped push the administration to repatriate Warmbier, also reacted to the president's comments on Thursday.

"We must remember Otto, and we should never let North Korea off the hook for what they did to him," Portman said in a statement.

Trump expressed his rage at Warmbier's treatment back in 2017, the same year North Korea's missile testing raised alarms around the world, including with the U.S. administration.

Trump condemned the "brutality of the North Korean regime" in a statement when Warmbier died in June that year and claimed separately the student was "tortured beyond belief."

He then invited Warmbier's parents to his state of the union address in January 2018.

"After a shameful trial, the dictatorship sentenced Otto to 15 years of hard labour, before returning him to America last June — horribly injured and on the verge of death. He passed away just days after his return," the president said in the address.

Trump said in June 2018 after meeting Kim for the first time in Singapore that Warmbier's fate was instrumental in the historic summit happening at all.

"Without Otto Warmbier, this summit wouldn't have happened," said Trump. "Otto is someone who did not die in vain."

In December, Warmbier's parents won a $500-million default judgment against the regime for wrongful death in a U.S. district court in the District of Columbia.

His cause of death has never been conclusively established. A reporter for GQ who followed the case and spoke with several doctors said there was strong reason to believe Warmbier's brain damage happened in the days after his verdict, raising the possibility that a suicide attempt and not torture could have been the explanation.

On Thursday, Trump emphasized he had helped secure Warmbier's release, as well as the release of other Americans detained in North Korea. Remains of some American servicemen killed in the Korean War decades ago were also repatriated to the U.S. last year.

While several people from the U.S. have been detained in North Korea over the years, there haven't been any cases comparable to Warmbier's death-related injuries he sustained in custody.