Trump says Warmbier's comatose return 'truly terrible thing'

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday what happened to a comatose American student released from North Korea this week is a "truly terrible thing."

"I'm glad that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and I, along with a very talented team, were able to get Otto Warmbier back with his parents. What's happened to him is a truly terrible thing, but at least the ones who love him so much can now take care of him and be with him," Trump said during a speech in Miami.

Warmbier, the 22-year-old University of Virginia student, returned to his Ohio home in a coma earlier this week after spending 17 months in the North on charges of stealing a political propaganda poster. North Korean officials claimed Warmbier fell into a coma in March last year due to botulism and a sleeping pill.

Doctors said Warmbier has severe brain damage and is in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness."

jschang@yna.co.kr
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