North Korea has released 22-year-old American student Otto Warmbier from a 15-year sentence of hard labor, officials said Tuesday, as former USA basketball star Dennis Rodman arrived in Pyongyang.
It's unclear if President Donald Trump was aware of Rodman's travel plans.
"The Secretary of State has confirmed to me that Otto has been released by North Korea, and is being returned to his family", the Ohio Republican said in a statement.
Approximately six weeks after his arrest - in March 2016 - the OH native was sentenced to 15 years hard labour. "We wish him well, but we have issued travel warnings to Americans and suggested they not travel to North Korea for their own safety", U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon told reporters after discussing the North Korean missile threat and other issues with Japanese counterparts.
The Post said it wasn't clear whether Rodman is trying to help get Americans released, and he declined to answer reporters' questions when he arrived in Pyongyang on his fifth visit to the country.
In the same interview he came under fire for remarks which appeared to blame Kenneth Bae, an American-Korean missionary who was jailed in North Korea, for his own incarceration. Warmbier has said he arrived in North Korea on December 29, 2015, and was arrested January 2, 2016, as he prepared to fly out of Pyongyang's global airport.
Jailed US student released in North Korea
USA student Otto Warmbier has been released from incarceration in North Korea , Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has confirmed. Mr Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years in jail with hard labour after he confessed that he tried to steal a propaganda banner.
Officials involved in securing Warmbier's release told The Post that it had nothing to do with Rodman's trip to Pyongyang, calling it a "bizarre coincidence" that might have been a deliberate ploy from North Korea to distract from Warmbier's condition.
Dennis Rodman is reportedly on his way to North Korea for a visit, something which, while globally significant, is nothing new for the former National Basketball Association player. The parents of the 22-year old American man freed by North Korea say he is in a coma. Rodman added in the tweet that he would "discuss my mission upon my return to the U.S.". For North Korea to imprison Otto with no notification or consular access for more than a year is the utmost example of its complete failure to recognize fundamental human rights and dignity. One, Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was released Tuesday.
The former Chicago Bulls star also once encouraged former US President Barack Obama to "pick up the phone and call" Mr Kim, emphasising that the two leaders both liked basketball.
Rodman continues to say that the sport of basketball will help relations between North Korea and the rest of the world, though it's sad if he really believes a simple game can fix such a geopolitical mess.
When asked if he would bring up the cases of Warmbier and three other Americans detained in North Korea, Rodman told reporters, "That's not my goal right now ..."
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is back in North Korea, and once again, no one really knows why. It is common for sections of tourist hotels to be reserved for North Korean staff and off-limits to foreigners.
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