Published : Oct. 28, 2018 - 09:24
The head of a North Korean hospital on Saturday denied allegations that American college student Otto Warmbier was tortured to death in North Korea.
Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March 2016 for stealing a propaganda sign from a Pyongyang hotel. He was released in a coma in June last year and died shortly after being returned to his family in the US.
Otto Warmbier (Yonhap)
North Korean officials claimed Warmbier fell into a coma in March 2016 due to botulism and a sleeping pill.
On Saturday, the director of the Pyongyang Friendship Hospital said the hospital provided sincere medical care to Warmbier from a humanitarian standpoint until his return to the US.
"As the director of the hospital directly involved in medical treatment of Warmbier, I cannot repress my indignation over the American total distortion of the truth regarding his death," the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.
"Now the question is: what is the ulterior motive of those American doctors trying to make a different story at this point in time with regard to the cause of Warmbier's death." (Yonhap)