WCPO in Cincinnati is reporting today that Otto Warmbier has died. Otto Warmbier was the young man that the North Koreans released to the United States last week.

The article reports:

Earlier, doctors treating Warmbier had said he suffered “severe neurological injury” and that he was in a state of “unresponsive wakefulness.” North Korean officials had claimed Warmbier contracted botulism and never woke up after taking a sleeping pill. Doctors in Cincinnati said he showed no signs of botulism when he arrived here last week, though they couldn’t say exactly what caused the cardiac or respiratory arrest that led to his unresponsive condition.

Warmbier had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea after officials there said he took a propaganda banner from a hotel in early 2016. His tour group was leaving when authorities detained Warmbier. Other members of the tour group have raised doubts about the theft story given by officials.

I suspect that he was sent back to America because the North Koreans realized he was close to death and wanted to make sure he didn’t die in North Korea. My heart goes out to his parents. This was not an acceptable conclusion to his ordeal.

It is my hope that whatever the reaction to this by the Trump Administration, that reaction will cause other countries to reconsider how they treat Americans.