The statement by Tillerson, which he later read Tuesday morning at a congressional hearing, offered no other details and made no mention of Rodman's visit.
His release comes as former United States basketball star Dennis Rodman visited the reclusive country.
CINCINNATI (AP) - An American college student who was released from a North Korean prison is finally home but in a coma and undergoing treatment at an OH hospital where he was taken shortly after arriving on US soil. "The brutalization and terrorism the North Koreans have put upon Otto and the Warmbier family have ended".
Rodman watched a women's basketball team practice at a gym Wednesday and visited the birthplace of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader. A senior administration official said the Trump administration did not authorize this trip.
Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old college student detained and imprisoned in North Korea, is carried off of an airplane at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13, 2017.
But with Warmbier in such dire condition, it's unclear whether North Korea can leverage the medical evacuation of this student into a positive.
"At the direction of the President, the Department of State has secured the release of Otto Warmbier from North Korea", read the statement. He is scheduled to meet North Korea's sports minister before he leaves the country on Saturday.
The North Korean court held that Warmbier had committed a crime "pursuant to the USA government's hostile policy toward (the North), in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist". Global negotiations on the dispute over North Korea's nuclear program have been in limbo for years, as the USA cranks up economic sanctions and North Korea won't give up weapons it considers a guarantee against invasion. He said he is "just trying to open a door" on a mission that he thinks his former "Celebrity Apprentice" boss would support.
PM Nawaz to appear before JIT tomorrow
His son's Hassan and Hussain Nawaz have already been summoned and questioned several times in recent days. Prime Minister Sharif has been asked to appear before the JIT on Thursday.
North Korea announced Warmbier's arrest in late January 2016, saying he committed an anti-state crime with "the tacit connivance of the USA government and under its manipulation".
Warmbier was detained in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in March of last year for trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan, according to North Korean media.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement to The Associated Press that they have been told their son has been in a coma since March 2016, and they had learned of this only one week ago.
The State Department is continuing to discuss the situation of three other detained Americans with North Korea, Tillerson said. On the same trip, he suggested an American missionary was at fault for his own imprisonment in North Korea, remarks for which he later apologized. At the meeting, North Korea agreed that Swedish diplomats could visit all four American detainees. He has generally brushed off such criticism as unfair because as an athlete and celebrity he shouldn't be expected to solve hard political problems.
Two Ohio senators are denouncing North Korea after a resident of their state was said to be in a coma after being released from a prison in that country.
Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has faced growing tensions with North Korea, which has conducted a series of ballistic missile tests in defiance of U.S. and global sanctions.
A North Korean foreign ministry official, requesting anonymity because no formal North Korean statement had been released, said only that Warmbier was released and left the country Tuesday.
There is an internet urban legend that North Korea is a pothead paradise and maybe even the next Amsterdam of pot tourism. But the claim that marijuana is legal in North Korea is not true.
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