Thousands of family members, friends and supporters of Otto Warmbier have gathered in Cincinnati to say goodbye to the American student who died days after returning to the United States in a coma following 17 months in captivity in North Korea.
Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea for almost a year and a half, died on the afternoon of Monday, June 19.
In an article published by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Pyongyang said they treated the 22-year-old according to domestic law and global standards. He could not speak or move voluntarily and his doctors said he suffered extensive brain damage.
"The smear campaign against (North Korea) staged in the USA compels us to make firm determination that we should further sharpen the blade of law", the foreign ministry spokesman said according to state media. He was arrested for stealing a propaganda sign from a hotel and sentenced to 15 years hard labour.
After graduating as class salutatorian in 2013, Warmbier enrolled at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he was studying at the school of commerce.
He said North Korea's treatment of Mr Warmbier demonstrated "a basic disregard for human rights, for human dignity".
Warmbier died Monday after his June 13 return to his home state of OH, where doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center treated him.
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Ohio's Republican U.S. senator says he had a secret meeting in December with North Korean officials to urge that they release a college student from his Cincinnati home area. They have blamed his death on the "awful, torturous mistreatment" he received in North Korea.
Mr Warmbier's treatment was "appalling", US Senator Rob Portman of OH told reporters outside the memorial.
Meanwhile, North Korea is holding three other Americans as well as six South Koreans.
It is impossible to get reliable information about the welfare and treatment of foreigners detained in North Korea - Washington only learned of Otto Warmbier's condition in early June.
The ceremony was held at a high school in Wyoming, Ohio, from where he completed his schooling before enrolling at the University of Virginia.
Garrett said North Korea should join Sudan, Syria and Iran on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
President Donald Trump has also suggested that the Obama administration did not do enough to secure Warmbier's release. "That can be catastrophic and precipitous", Dr. Daniel Laskowitz, a professor of neurology at Duke University told NBC Tuesday, noting that the flight back from North Korea could have made a blood clot form or spread to the lungs.
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