Otto Warmbier

When the American university student Otto Warmbier died back in June soon after coming home in a coma following a 17-month detention in North Korea, the China-based tour company that took him there announced it would no longer sell such tours to United States citizens. Then I started paying attention to the Western enthusiasm to see the world's last remaining iron curtain.

Beyond the bluster, the Trump administration has been quietly engaged in back channel diplomacy with North Korea for several months, addressing Americans imprisoned in the communist country and deteriorating relations between the long-time foes, The Associated Press has learned.

North Korea's state media on Tuesday published a report describing President Trump's "America First" policy akin to "Nazism in the 21st century."

The Korean Central News Agency said Trump's policy is the "American version of Nazism far surpassing the fascism in the last century in its ferocious, brutal and chauvinistic nature."

Following news of Otto Warmbier’s death earlier today, former U.S. President Barack Obama has come under fire for his perceived inaction in bringing the 22-year-old home from North Korea while he was in office.

The US student held in captivity for more than 15 months in North Korea has died a week after returning home.
Otto Warmbier, 22, was serving 15 years of hard labour for attempting to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel.
He was sent back to the US last Tuesday on humanitarian grounds – it emerged he had been in a coma for a year.

An American student who fell into a coma while imprisoned in a North Korean labor camp returned to the United States late on June 13 after Pyongyang allowed him to be flown home, U.S. media reported.

A military airplane carrying Otto Warmbier landed in his hometown of Cincinnati shortly before 10:20 p.m. local time, CBS News reported.

University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier has been medically evacuated from North Korea in a coma after being detained for 17 months, his parents confrmed on Tuesday.

Mr Warmbier, 22, is due to arrive home in Cincinnati on Tuesday evening, after a stop at a US military facility near Sapporo, Japan.