瓦姆比尔之死让朝鲜侵犯人权称为焦点

U.S. student Otto Warmbier’s tragic death Monday, after being released from a North Korean prison in a coma, has again put an international focus on the widespread human rights violations allegedly being committed by the Kim Jong Un government.

“This is a government that frankly is a human rights abomination. It is a human rights black hole,” said Phil Robertson, the Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.

In January of 2016, Warmbier was arrested in Pyongyang for allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda poster at a hotel. He was sentenced to 15 years hard labor, then fell into a coma 15 months ago from which he never awoke.

North Korean officials said the 22-year-old American university student contracted botulism while in custody and was given a sleeping pill that put him into a comatose state. Doctors at the hospital in Cincinnati, where he was being treated after being released, discounted the North Korean account but could not say what caused the severe neurological injury.

"Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today," the family said in a statement following his death.

U.S. President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the family in a statement Monday saying, “There is nothing more tragic for a parent than to lose a child in the prime of life.”

The president also said the death deepens his determination to prevent future tragedies "at the hands of regimes that do not respect the rule of law or basic human decency.''

Other U.S. officials issued similar statements of sympathy for the family and outrage at what they described as Warmbier’s brutal, inhumane treatment by the North Korean government.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in issued a statement offering “condolence and consolation” to Warmbier’s family, and also condemned North Korea for detaining foreign nationals without regard for human rights guaranteed under international law.

“North Korea is still detaining our citizens and American citizens, and it needs to return them to their families immediately, and our government will put utmost effort for this,” said South Korean Presidential Office spokesman Park Soo-hyun.

There are six South Koreans currently imprisoned in North Korea. Some were missionaries who were charged with spying and others were reportedly kidnapped by North Korean agents while helping defectors on the Chinese side of the border.

U.S. officials have said they are concerned about three Korean-Americans who remain held in North Korea.

The U.S. government accuses North Korea of using such detainees as political pawns. North Korea accuses Washington and South Korea of sending spies to overthrow its government.