5 Shocking Revelations About North Korea in 2017: From Tortured Orphans to End Times Fears

By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter

3. Tortured U.S. student dies

Otto Warmbier was detained in North Korea for 17 months and died a week after returning home to the U.S.
Otto Warmbier was detained in North Korea for 17 months and died a week after returning home to the U.S. | REUTERS/Kyodo

American student Otto Warmbier was one of several Westerners to be returned home following captivity in North Korea in 2017, though the Ohio native died only days after his release in June.

In September, his parents said that he had been returned to them in an extremely distressing state. Fred Warmbier said that his son "was jerking violently, making these inhuman, howling" sounds on the plane in which he was flown back.

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The parents added that their son had been tortured, and that he was "blind and deaf, with mangled teeth, jerking violently and moaning on a stretcher with a feeding tube coming out of his nose."

Warmbier added: "As we looked at him and tried to comfort him it looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth. ... He had a large scar on his right foot."

North Korean officials had previously claimed that they treated the student "according to domestic and international standards."

Follow Stoyan Zaimov on Facebook: CPSZaimov

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