The mother of the late Otto Warmbier, who died in 2017 after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison for allegedly trying to steal a poster, slammed the reclusive nation and called it "a cancer on the Earth" in new comments.
Cindy Warmbier spoke at a Hudson Institute event and had some emotional things to say about her son, who died on June 19, 2017 at the age of 22.
"North Korea to me is a cancer on the Earth. And if we ignore this cancer, it's not gonna go away. It's gonna kill all of us," Warmbier said.
CNN posted a video of her remarks.
"And I know he was sorry he ever went into that godforsaken place. Had I known that North Korea wanted money for Otto, I would have gladly given them money from day 1. That isn't what they wanted from Otto in the beginning. First of all, they want everything they can get from anyone they take," she added.
It was recently reported that the U.S. agreed to pay $2 million to North Korea for his medical care after his release, but the money was never sent.
Cindy Warmbier said her son appeared to have "seen the Devil."
"My gorgeous boy, who every girl had an immediate crush on, looked like a monster. I swear," she said. "The look in his eyes — which I didn't know he was blind at the time — was absolute horror. Horror. Like he'd seen the Devil. And he had. He was with the Devil."
Warmbier traveled to North Korea with other western college students at the end of 2015. He was arrested on Jan. 2, 2016 at the airport, and he was later charged with — and convicted of — trying to steal a North Korean propaganda poster from his hotel.
He was released on June 13, 2017 and died for days later. He was in a comatose state when he arrived back in the U.S.
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