Family of American killed by North Korea fear for captive US soldier

Father of Otto Warmbier say US soldier who ran across border to North Korea is ‘now a hostage and a political prisoner’, Communist nation will ‘manipulate this situation’ and they hope Biden ‘decides to take action’

• Fred Warmbier, whose son Otto died after 17 months captive in North Korea, said Private 2nd Class Travis King deserves the ‘benefit of the doubt’
• Fears were growing for King on Wednesday as Pyongyang had still not produced the soldier or acknowledged the incident more than 24 hours later
• Warmbier told DailyMail.com: ‘We empathize with him and his family, no matter what the circumstances’

The father of a young American who died after he was detained in North Korea has said the US soldier held by the communist dictatorship deserves ‘the benefit of the doubt’ and fears he is now ‘hostage, political prisoner and a pawn’.

Fred Warmbier also said the US government should work to ‘resolve’ the crisis after Private 2nd Class Travis King, 23, sprinted across the border with South Korea on Tuesday.

Warmbier’s son, Otto Warmbier, died aged 22 after he was detained in North Korea in January 2016 while visiting the country with a tour group. Otto was convicted on charges of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Officials in the Trump administration helped secure Otto’s release in June 2017 but he was brought home in a vegetative state and died days later. His family and the US have said he suffered brain damage while being tortured by North Korea.

Warmbier, who campaigns with his wife, Cindy, to expose human rights abuses by North Korea, spoke out about King on Wednesday as fears grew for the soldier. Pyongyang has still not produced him or acknowledged the incident.

Otto Warmbier spent 17 months in detention in North Korea before he was returned to the US in a vegetative state. He died days later. Pictured: Otto is carried off of an airplane at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati

Otto Warmbier, died aged 22 after he was detained in North Korea in January 2016 while visiting the country with a tour group. He was returned to the US in a coma in June 2017 and died soon after. North Korea was accused of torturing Otto

Fred Warmbier said the US government should work to ‘resolve’ the crisis after Private 2nd Class Travis King, 23, sprinted across with border with South Korea on Tuesday

Travis King crossed into North Korea shortly after being released from prison in South Korea

‘We must give this young man the benefit of the doubt,’ Warmbier told DailyMail.com

‘We empathize with him and his family, no matter what the circumstances. North Korea is going to manipulate this situation, he is now a hostage, political prisoner and a pawn for the regime.’

‘Our government has levers in place to resolve these situations, let’s hope they decide to take action,’ he added.

Otto, a University of Virginia student, had entered North Korea on December 29, 2015, during a trip organized by Young Pioneer Tours.

The group had stayed at the Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang and celebrated New Year’s Eve in Kim Il-sung Square. The country’s authorities alleged that after the celebrations, Otto attempted to steal a propaganda poster from a staff-only area of the hotel.

The poster said ‘let’s arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong-il’s patriotism!’

He was convicted by North Korean on charges of trying to steal a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Otto’s father said previously that his son was ‘curious’ about North Korea’s culture and ‘wanted to meet the people’. 

While not providing a clear reason for Otto’s brain damage, North Korea denied that he was tortured and insisted that it had provided him medical care with ‘all sincerity’.

The North accused the United States of a smear campaign and claimed itself as the ‘biggest victim’ in his death.

The mystery was compounded by reports that Otto may have attempted suicide while he was imprisoned in the country.

North Korean authorities paraded Otto Warmbier after his arrest and he was made to issue a forced confession

Otto (pictured in North Korea), a University of Virginia student, had entered the country on December 29, 2015, during a trip organized by Young Pioneer Tours

In 2022, a U.S. federal judge in New York ruled that Warmbier’s parents — Fred and Cindy Warmbier — should receive $240,300 seized from a North Korean bank account, which would be a partial payment toward the more than $501 million they were awarded in 2018 by a federal judge in Washington. 

King was photographed moments before the crossing as he enjoyed a tour of the ultra high-security area.

He was pictured wearing a black t-shirt and hat purchased from a gift shop at the demilitarized zone as he peers across the border into the secretive communist country.

Witnesses said he laughed hysterically as he made the mad dash on Tuesday after fleeing his military superiors and joining the tour. The picture surfaced as it emerged King had a string of run-ins with police in South Korea for offences which included battering a man in a night club and damaging a police car.

Unconfirmed reports have said King ‘defected’ and his mother spoke out overnight on Tuesday to say she couldn’t fathom her son doing ‘anything like that’.

Court documents reveal that months earlier, King had faced two assault allegations and was fined by a South Korean court for damaging a police car. 

He had also been troubled by the tragic death of his seven-year-old cousin from a rare genetic condition months before the incident, his uncle said. 

He had served two months in prison for assault before his release in July and had been escorted to an airport by US Army officials to return home for military disciplinary proceedings. 

US Army Private 2nd Class Travis King, circled, is pictured during the tour moments before his dash across the border into North Korea. His hat was purchased from a gift shop at the demilitarized zone

North Korea has still not produced the 23-year-old Private 2nd Class or acknowledged his arrest

But after they left him at airport security, King left the terminal and went on to the tour. 

The U.S. military was scrambling to establish the fate of King, whose actions have thrown Washington into a new crisis in its dealing with the nuclear-armed state. US officials said on Tuesday that King crossed ‘willfully and without authorization’.

His motive for his high-stakes gambit remains unclear.

The tourist who witnessed King’s crossing and took the photo of the soldier, Sarah Leslie from New Zealand, said she initially believed it was a stunt ‘for TikTok’.

Leslie and her father, tourists from New Zealand, were part of a group that left Tuesday morning from Seoul to visit the Demilitarized Zone that divides South and North Korea.

King was among the group of 43 tourists, although he was casually dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt and she had no idea at the time that he was a soldier, or in legal trouble.

Leslie said her tour group went a step further than many by visiting the Joint Security Area in the village of Panmunjom, allowing tourists to effectively step on North Korean soil inside one of the buildings, which are jointly held.

To get on such a tour, she said, required submitting their passports and getting permits in advance.

The group left Seoul by bus in the early morning, and Leslie noticed that King was traveling alone and didn’t seem to talk to others on the tour. At one point, she said, he bought a DMZ hat from a gift shop.

A tourist who witnessed King’s stunt, Sarah Leslie from New Zealand, said she initially believed it was a stunt ‘for TikTok’

Former President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea on June 30, 2019 – the spot where King made his crossing

King crossed the border at Panmunjom, during a tour of the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone

The tour was nearing its end Tuesday afternoon — the group had just walked out of the building and were milling about taking photos — when she saw King running ‘really fast’.

‘I assumed initially he had a mate filming him in some kind of really stupid prank or stunt, like a TikTok, the most stupid thing you could do,’ Leslie said. ‘But then I heard one of the soldiers shout, ‘Get that guy.”

Leslie said the command was shouted by an American soldier, one of a group that patrols the area along with South Korean troops.

But the soldiers didn’t have time to respond. She said that after running about 10 meters (30 feet) down a narrow passageway between the distinctive blue buildings, King was over the border and then disappeared from sight. It was all over in a few seconds.

Leslie said she didn’t see any people on the North Korean side. The tour group had been told earlier the North Koreans there had been lying low since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After King ran, she said, the soldiers hustled all the tourists into a building and then took them to an information center to give statements. She said many of the tourists, including her father, hadn’t seen King run but a soldier explained the events to them.

‘People couldn’t really quite believe what had happened,’ Leslie said. 

‘Quite a few were really shocked. Once we got on the bus and got out of there we were all kind of staring at each other.’

King’s mother, Claudine Gates, said last night she was ‘so proud’ of her son and added: ‘I just want him to come home, come back to America.’

Gates, from Racine, Wisconsin, said: ‘I can’t see Travis doing anything like that.’

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