FILE PHOTO – Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia student detained in North Korea, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 16, 2016. REUTERS/Kyodo/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump believes North Korea is responsible for Otto Warmbier’s death, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Friday after the family of the former American college student blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Conway told Fox News she had just spoken to Trump about the issue. “The president agrees with the Warmbier family and holds North Korea responsible for Otto Warmbier’s death,” Conway said.
Trump drew criticism during this week’s Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam after he praised Kim and said he accepted his claims not to have been aware of how Warmbier was treated.
“He tells me that he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word,” Trump told a news conference. He also praised Kim’s leadership.
Conway said Trump still holds North Korea responsible but stopped short of laying blame on the leader of the reclusive communist nation.
“What he said was that Chairman Kim says, what he believes Chairman Kim to have said, was that he was not aware of what had happened to Otto Warmbier when it happened,” she told Fox.
Warmbier’s family spoke out on Friday and said they believed Kim had clear responsibility.
Warmbier, 22, died on June 19, 2017, in his home in Ohio shortly after he was flown home in a coma after being held by North Korea for 17 months.
Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Peter Szekely; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish