President Trump said the U.S. did not pay North Korea anything after the rogue regime reportedly charged the U.S. $2 million for the hospital care of American college student Otto Warmbier.
“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else,” Trump tweeted Friday morning. “This is not the Obama Administration that paid 1.8 Billion Dollars for four hostages, or gave five terroist [sic.] hostages plus, who soon went back to battle, for traitor Sgt. Bergdahl!”
No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else. This is not the Obama Administration that paid 1.8 Billion Dollars for four hostages, or gave five terroist hostages plus, who soon went back to battle, for traitor Sgt. Bergdahl!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2019
Warmbier was arrested in January 2016 in Pyongyang, accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel and was sentenced that March to 15 years’ hard labor. The Trump administration secured his release in June 2017, but he returned home in a coma and died days later. Doctors determined that he had major loss of tissue in all areas of his brain.
[Related: Trump defends Kim on death of American Otto Warmbier: ‘I don’t believe he knew about it’]
According to the Washington Post, the American envoy who oversaw bringing Warmbier back to the U.S. approved an agreement to pay the medical bill, per the directions from Trump. The bill was sent to the Treasury Department and it was not paid through 2017. However, the Post reports it’s uncertain if the bill was paid prior to Trump’s summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018 and 2019.
Trump’s remarks concerning the Obama administration were a reference to the billions of dollars that the U.S. transferred to Iran, which occurred around the same time several hostages flew out of Tehran in January 2016. The Obama administration rejected suggestions that the payment was connected to the release of prisoners, and said it was related to an arms deal that never went through because of the Iranian revolution in 1979.
