Friends and family members are gathering in Ohio to say goodbye to an American student who just six died days after being returned to the United States in a coma following 17 months in captivity in North Korea.
Otto Warmbier, 22, was arrested in the reclusive communist country while visiting as a tourist. He was brought back to the United States last week with severe brain damage, in what doctors described as state of ‘unresponsive wakefulness,’ and died on Monday.
Thousands turned out to pay their respects to Otto, but were warned they would not all be able to attend the service at Pendery Center for the Arts.
The hall, part of Wyoming High School, has a capacity of 642 which can be increased to 800 for graduation ceremonies.
Wyoming, Ohio has a population of around 8,000 and one mourner said: ‘Otto was everybody’s son or brother. We all feel the pain of Otto’s family today and always will.’
Mourners, some dabbing away tears, lined up patiently as officials walked through the queues seeking family and close friends to take them to the front while police said an anti-room would accommodate those unable to enter the service.
As they entered the hall a large white wreath in blue and white colored flowers, the school’s colors, in the shape of a Good Luck horse shoe was placed at the front door.
Blue and white ribbons were also tied to trees around the city to show support for Warmbier’s family after his recent return.
Warmbier will be buried later in the day at Oak Hill Cemetery. The service is open to the public, but not the news media.
Before the funeral, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman spoke to reporters outside of the event.
He called Warmbier ‘a bright and shining light taken away by a pariah nation’.
‘Today is a somber day. It’s also a day to talk about a life…and the impact he made on so many people,’ Portman said.
In detaining Warmbier for so long, when he needed medical help, Portman said the regime showed a ‘lack of respect for basic human dignity and human rights’ and should be held accountable.
In addition to Portman, three officials from the Trump administration were in attendance Thursday morning.
When asked about allegations that President Obama didn’t do enough to try and secure Warmbier’s release, Portman refused to dole out blame.
‘I do believe that both the Obama Administration and the Trump Administration tried to get Otto home,’ he said.
Portman himself had a huge role in trying to free Warmbier. On Wednesday, it was revealed that he even staged a secret meeting with North Korean officials at the United Nations last December.
The U. S. does not officially have relations with the North Koreans, so most of the time communications between the two nations happen through conduit nations, such as Sweden.
During the meeting, Portman urged the North Koreans to let the Swedish ambassador visit Warmbier in Pyongyang, but they refused.
The exact cause of Warmbier’s death is unclear. Officials at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he was treated, declined to provide details, and Warmbier’s family on Tuesday asked that the Hamilton County Coroner not perform an autopsy.
Warmbier’s father, Fred Warmbier, told a news conference last week that his son had flourished while at the high school.
‘This is the place where Otto experienced some of the best moments of his young life, and he would be pleased to know that his return to the United States would be acknowledged on these grounds,’ he said.
After graduating as class salutatorian in 2013, Warmbier enrolled at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where he was studying at the school of commerce and was a member of the Theta Chi fraternity. Warmbier was scheduled to graduate this year.
At a memorial service on Tuesday night, students at the university remembered Warmbier as outgoing and energetic.
‘Being with Otto made life all the more beautiful,’ Alex Vagonis, Warmbier’s girlfriend, said.
Warmbier was traveling in North Korea with a tour group, and was arrested at Pyongyang airport as he was about to leave.
He was sentenced two months later to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel, North Korea state media said.
Ria Westergaard Pedersen, 33, who was with Warmbier in North Korea, told the Danish broadcaster TV2 that he had been nervous when taking pictures of soldiers, and said she doubted North Korea’s explanation for his arrest.
‘We went to buy propaganda posters together, so why in the world would he risk so much to steal a trivial poster? It makes no sense.’
Following Warmbier’s death, the tour group that arranged his trip said it would no longer take Americans to North Korea.
“Now, the assessment of risk for Americans visiting North Korea has become too high,” said the China-based Young Pioneer Tours.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that Washington holds North Korea “accountable” for Warmbier’s fate, and demanded the release of three other Americans held by the reclusive regime.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said that US patience with Pyongyang is running out.
“To see a young man go over there healthy and, (after) a minor act of mischief, come home dead basically… this goes beyond any kind of understanding of law and order, of humanity, of responsibility towards any human being,” Mattis said.
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