Top U.S. justice official says North Korea won't hold anyone 'accountable' in student's death

Record ID: 896223

  • Title: Top U.S. justice official says North Korea won't hold anyone 'accountable' in student's death
  • Date: 20th June 2017
  • Summary: BETHESDA, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES (JUNE 20, 2017) (REUTERS) U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS AND DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL ROD ROSENSTEIN ON STAGE AT A CRIME REDUCTION CONFERENCE U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS AND DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL ROD ROSENSTEIN SEATED ON STAGE WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL ROD ROSENSTEIN SAYING: "The media was reporting that Otto was coming home. But it turned out that Otto did not really make it home. Hard labor in North Korea means torture. Otto was sent home after about 18 months with brain damage. And yesterday brought the tragic news of Otto's death. And North Korea will not hold anybody accountable for Otto's death. It's a totalitarian government with no concept of the rule of law; no civil rights, no due process, no justice." WHITE FLASH PAN OUT FROM DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL ROD ROSENSTEIN TO WIDE OF STAGE AS U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS APPROACHES PODIUM AND AUDIENCE CLAPS
  • Embargoed: 4th July 2017 15:25
  • Keywords: Attorney General Jeff Sessions Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein North Korea Otto Warmbier
  • Location: BETHESDA, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES
  • City: BETHESDA, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016M32XC7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A top U.S. justice official said on Tuesday (June 20) that Pyongyang will not hold anyone accountable in the death of an American student who was detained in North Korea for 17 months before he was returned to the U.S. earlier this week while in a coma.
    "The media was reporting that Otto was coming home. But it turned out that Otto did not really make it home," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said during a Washington summit on battling violent crime.
    "North Korea will not hold anybody accountable for Otto's death. It's a totalitarian government with no concept of the rule of law; no civil rights, no due process, no justice," Rosenstein said.
    Otto Warmbier, 22, an American university student held prisoner in North Korea died at a Cincinnati hospital on Monday, just days after he was released from captivity in a coma, his family said.
    Warmbier who was arrested in North Korea while visiting as a tourist had been described by doctors caring for him last week as having extensive brain damage that left him in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness."
    U.S. President Donald Trump issued a statement offering condolences to the Warmbier family and denouncing "the brutality of the North Korean regime as we mourn its latest victim."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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