The Trump administration is weighing its options on how to respond to the death of an American student days after he got back from North Korean detainment.
“There is nothing more tragic for a parent than to lose a child in the prime of life,” a somber President Donald Trump said Monday.
Lawmakers also weighed in on North Korea’s treatment of Otto Warmbier, 22. He was detained in the isolated, Stalinist country in January 2016 after allegedly stealing a propaganda sign. North Korean officials sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor. Last week, he was released back into U.S. custody—but in a comatose state. He died Monday.
“The North Korean regime is mistaken if it believes that its barbaric mistreatment of an American citizen held in depraved captivity for over a year will pass quietly,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said. Trump said, somewhat cryptically, that the United States will “be able to handle it,” which some have considered a veiled threat toward the communist regime.
