(AP Photo/John Minchillo). A pair hugs and cries outside the plane carrying Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate student who was imprisoned in North Korea in March 2016, before he is transferred from a transport aircraft to.
An American college student serving a 15-year prison term in North Korea who was released and medically evacuated from the country on Tuesday has been in a coma for months, his parents said.
Warmbier was detained in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labour in March last year for trying to steal an item with a propaganda slogan, according to North Korean media.
"The release is very welcome". "Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March of 2016", the parents said in a statement.
Warmbier was supposed to graduate from the University of Virginia in May.
Later, Tillerson said at the start of testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "We have no comment on Mr. Warmbier's condition, out of respect to him and the family".
Currently, a total of six South Koreans are detained in North Korea including several religious missionaries accused of treason or espionage.
Three other American citizens are being detained in North Korea, at a time when Kim Jong Un has been firing missiles and threatening to strike the United States. The North Koreans agreed to allow consular visits to four Americans held in the North.
Rodman, 56, told CNN he was hoping to do "something that's pretty positive" as he boarded a plane to North Korea from Beijing.
A hospital spokeswoman said Warmbier's family was expected to hold a news conference Thursday morning at Wyoming High School. There, North Korean officials told Yun about Warmbier's condition.
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Earlier Tuesday, Tillerson had provided only few details about Warmbier or the circumstances around his release.
A senior administration official said the Trump administration did not authorize Rodman's trip.
"My thoughts and prayers are with Otto Warmbier and his family", she tweeted, saying also that she was "thankful that he is finally coming home". Richardson has played a role in past negotiations with North Korea.
- South Korean-born USA citizen Kim Dong Chul, who was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage.
If Warmbier had been able to return to the USA, he would have graduated from college in May. Thousands of USA troops are based in South Korea, and the Demilitarized Zone between the North and South is one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. Yun was then dispatched to North Korea and visited Warmbier with two doctors on Monday, and demanded his release on humanitarian grounds.
An abrupt announcement came to American officials last week with news that Warmbier was in a coma, according to the Post.
"All we know so far is what they have told us", the official said.
The announcement comes as former National Basketball Association superstar Dennis Rodman makes a return visit to the hermit kingdom where he has regularly enjoyed access to the country's top leadership, including Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. A 2009 visit by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, secured the freedom of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling.
Tillerson said that the State Department is continuing "to have discussions" with North Korea about the release of other three American citizens who are jailed there.
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