N. Korea sentences US tourist to 15 years

Associated Press

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA

North Korea’s highest court sentenced an American tourist to 15 years in prison with hard labor for subversion on Wednesday, weeks after authorities presented him to media and he tearfully confessed that he had tried to steal a propaganda banner.

Otto Warmbier, 21, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial in North Korea’s Supreme Court.

The U.S. government condemned the sentence and accused North Korea of using such American detainees as political pawns.

The court held that Warmbier had committed a crime “pursuant to the U.S. government’s hostile policy toward [the North], in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist.”

North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies to overthrow its government to enable the U.S.-backed South Korean government to take control of the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Warmbier’s sentence was “unduly harsh” and urged North Korea to pardon him and release him on humanitarian grounds.

Warmbier’s family in Wyoming, Ohio, could not be reached to comment.