The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was captured and later killed by the North Korean regime, are suing to get ahold of a North Korean ship that U.S. forces had seized in May.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier are filing the suit in an effort to get North Korea to pay the court-ordered $500 million dollars in damages that it owes the family–which the Warmbiers allege the regime refuses to do.
“We are committed to holding North Korea accountable for the death of our son, Otto, and will work tirelessly to seize North Korean assets wherever they may be found,” the Warmbiers said in a statement.
Shortly after North Korea released him in 2017, Otto Warmbier died from the extensive injuries he had sustained while imprisoned.
In December 2018, federal Judge Beryl A. Howell ordered North Korea to pay over $500 million dollars to the Warmbiers for the regime’s “barbaric mistreatment” of Warmbier.
President Donald Trump, who has heaped praise upon North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, said in February that he believed Kim when he said that he was unaware of the circumstances of Warmbier’s death.
“He tells me he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word,” Trump said at the time.
Warmbier’s parents hit back at Trump, saying that “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto.”
“Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity,” they said. “No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”
The Trump administration also reportedly agreed to pay $2 million to North Korea for Warmbier’s medical bills, though Trump denied that such a payment ever happened.
