Rep. Adam Kinzinger dismissed reports of a $2 million medical bill North Korea handed a U.S. envoy in 2017 for the medical care for late American college student Otto Warmbier as "probably typical North Korean bluster," and said "every indication" is that President Donald Trump didn't pay the demands.
"Whether or not we signed a bill is one thing," the Illinois Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "I'm darn sure we didn't pay it. We don't pay for things like that. Look, they got Otto, they beat him, they killed him, and murdered him, and the United States wasn't going to pay the ransom."
Kinzinger added that he can "guarantee" that Warmbier didn't receive $2 million worth of healthcare, as he died just six days after he was returned, in a coma, to the United States.
"They may have done this to save face, they may not have," he said. "We don't know...we didn't pay it. Ultimately, if they say you have to pay a $2 million bill we say, yeah, whatever, give us Otto back and they send him back plus the other hostages and the remains of U.S. service members and I think it is obvious. This is North Korea blustering again."
Kinzinger also rejected the idea that the summit this week between North Korea Chairman Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin marked any kind of breakthrough in denuclearization.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.