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Otto Warmbier

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Student

The Resume

    (December 12, 1994-June 19, 2017)
    Born in Cincinnati, Ohio
    Student at the University of Virginia
    Entered North Korean as part of a tour group (December 29, 2015)
    Arrested on charges of subversion for allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda poster (January 2, 2016)
    Convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment at hard labor (March 16, 2016)
    Shortly after sentencing, fell into a permanent vegetative state from an unknown cause
    Returned to the United States while still in a coma (June 16, 2017)
    Died after his feeding tube was removed at his parents' request

Why he might be annoying:

    He traveled to North Korea with Young Pioneer Touts, whose slogan was 'Destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from.'
    He confessed to the attempted theft of the poster at a press conference (February 29, 2016).
    The State Department reportedly agreed to pay North Korea $2 million to cover his medical costs as a condition of his release.
    His parents refused an autopsy, making it difficult to determine what caused him to fall into a coma.
    After a summit with Kim Jong-Un (February 28, 2019), President Donald Trump said, 'He tells me he didn't know about it [Warmbier's treatment], and I will take him at his word.' (Because if you can't trust a fellow megalomaniac with a personality cult and a bad hairdo, who can you trust?)

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was salutatorian of his high school.
    He had earlier visited Israel, Cuba, and Ecuador and toured Europe without incident.
    In his confession, he claimed he had been asked to steal the sign by a hometown Methodist church and the Z Society (a secret society at UVa), both of which were allied with the CIA; as the New York Times (among others) noted, 'the unlikely nature of the details' indicated that the confession was a script written by his interrogators.
    Human Rights Watch called his trial 'a kangaroo court.'
    North Korea kept the fact that he was in a coma secret for over a year.
    Regardless of what may have been promised, the US government did not pay the $2 million being demanded.
    Doctors treating him after his return to the US found no signs of torture or physical abuse.
    They also noted a lack of bed sores despite his extended period of immobility, suggesting that he had received proper medical care after falling into the coma.
    UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said, 'Countless innocent men and women have died at the hands of the North Korean criminals, but the singular case of Otto Warmbier touches the American heart like no other.'

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 42.86% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 26 Votes: 76.92% Annoying