REX TILLERSON, U.S. Secretary of State: At the president's direction, the Department of State has secured the release of Otto Warmbier from North Korea.
She said USA officials had a hard time getting information about Warmbier from North Korea.
Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was arrested for removing a political banner from a wall in a North Korean hotel during a visit.
THOMPSON: Dierker has known the Warmbier family for years and was heartbroken when she heard the University of Virginia student had been detained while visiting North Korea 18 months ago.
Meanwhile, the White House said Moon and Trump will meet on June 29 and 30 to discuss ways of building on what America frequently calls its "ironclad" alliance with South Korea. North Korean ships also can not fly the flags of other nations to evade sanctions. But it noted that the State Department is continuing "to have discussions" with North Korea about the release of other American citizens who are jailed there.
Pyongyang has released an American college student, sentenced to 15 years for alleged crimes against the state. North Korea therefore has every incentive to release a prisoner when an arrangement is made, or risk its credibility in future negotiations. He has said he is just going to have a good time but has also hinted he is "trying to open a door" for better relations between Washington and Pyongyang.
MARGARET WARNER: The release also coincides with former National Basketball Association player Dennis Rodman's latest visit to Pyongyang.
Rain-triggered landslides kill at least 48 in Bangladesh
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Asked whether China has been fulfilling its pledges to put more pressure on North Korea, Mr Tillerson said: "They have taken steps, visible steps that we can confirm".
United States college student Otto Warmbier was flown from North Korea to Cincinnati, Ohio on Tuesday, and quickly brought to a hospital. Warmbier later appeared and admitted to taking the propaganda poster.
It was only then that Washington learned Warmbier is in a coma. He has visited North Korea four times, including a 2014 trip where he was shadowed by a crew from Vice. Global negotiations on the dispute over North Korea's nuclear program have been in limbo for years, as the USA cranks up economic sanctions and North Korea won't give up weapons it considers a guarantee against invasion.
North Korea on Tuesday freed one of the detainees, Otto Warmbier.
"I'm back!" Rodman said on Twitter, announcing his trip. Three more Americans are still detained. It agreed to let Swedish diplomats visit the prisoners, and with news of Warmbier's dire condition, Pyongyang urgently requested a meeting with a top USA official at the United Nations last week. Nauert said the last consular visit to Warmbier, by Swedish diplomats, was March 2. Two of them, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang-dok, were detained earlier this year, while the third, Kim Dong-chul, was arrested in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor on charges of espionage and subversion.
Swedish diplomats, who represent USA interests in North Korea because the United States has no diplomatic relations with the country, had been denied access to him until late last month, following Yun's Oslo meeting.
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