If you decide to take a tour of North Korea and someone double dog dares you to steal something, say no.
That’s what 21-year-old University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier should have said before he attempted to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel.
NPR reported Wednesday that Warmbier was caught by authorities and sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard labor.
“North Korea’s sentencing of Otto Warmbier to 15 years’ hard labor for a college-style prank is outrageous and shocking,” said Deputy Asia Director for Human Rights Watch Phil Robertson in a statement. “Pyongyang should recognize this student’s self-admitted mistake as a misdemeanor offense that it would be in most countries, release him on humanitarian grounds and send him home.”
The college student was detained in early January, but officials at Pyongyang did not make his detention public until February, and didn’t disclose his offense until Feb. 29.
The Ohio native gave a tearful apology for the college prank, claiming he stole the poster on behalf of a member of the Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, who wanted the poster “as a trophy.”
Warmbier is one of the three North Americans known to be imprisoned in North Korea.
