Otto Warmbier speaks at a news conference in North Korea, in 2016.
Warmbier, 22, a University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, was on his way back to the United States, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement. "Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March of 2016", the parents told agencies.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier said they were informed that North Korean officials had told US envoys that Warmbier became ill from botulism sometime after his March trial and fell into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is widely forecast to inherit a so-called "Sunshine Policy" of trying to enhance relations with the DPRK through economic cooperation and civilian exchanges, has expressed his willingness to improve relations with the DPRK after being sworn in one month ago.
There is no clear sign that the former National Basketball Association bad boy will meet leader Kim Jong Un, as he did on previous visits to the isolated country.
A White House official says the May meeting in Oslo was attended by Joseph Yun, the US envoy to North Korea.
"Out of respect for the privacy of Mr. Warmbier and his family", said Tillerson, "we have no further comment".
Tillerson said the State Department secured his release at Trump's direction, and a spokeswoman was firm in saying Rodman's trip had nothing to do with Warmbier's release.
"I never, never should have allowed myself to be lured by the United States administration to commit a crime in this country", Warmbier said in a statement he gave after confessing to stealing the poster, "I wish that the United States administration never manipulate people like myself in the future to commit crimes against foreign countries".
The 56-year-old NBA Hall of Famer, who was heavily criticized for failing to raise the plight of a jailed USA missionary on a previous trip, said discussing detained United States citizens was "not my objective right now". "I'm not going to characterize what their son has been through". North Korea is not to be trusted, either in what it says or what it does.
The North Korean account, the family said, claimed that Warmbier then fell into a coma after being given a sleeping pill.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family as they continue to battle for Otto's life".
'Dear Evan Hansen' takes home most statuettes at 71st Tony Awards
He also mimicked Bill Clinton during the 71st annual Broadway awards at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on Sunday. Its star Rachel Bay Jones took the Tony for best featured actress in a musical.
Critics of Trump, meanwhile, also like to point to the eerie echoes of the Kim regime in the USA president's own behavior.
The release came after Joseph Yun, the State Department's special envoy on North Korea, travelled to Pyongyang and demanded his freedom on "humanitarian grounds", capping a flurry of secret diplomatic contacts, a USA official said.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, confirmed the release but did not comment on Warmbier's health.
The Trump administration has sought to increase pressure on North Korea over its nuclear and missile activities.
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said "North Korea's despicable actions in detaining and holding Otto were unacceptable and must be condemned". "He doesn't deserve this", Fred Warmbier told the Enquirer last month in an interview.
On May 21, the day Warmbier would have graduated, UVA student leaders distributed "Free Otto" stickers and organized a tribute in his honor.
American student Otto Warmbier, seen here arriving for his trial in Pyongyang in March 2016.
She said USA officials had a hard time getting information about Warmbier from North Korea.
A USA citizen who is being held in North Korea on charges of "hostile acts" against the Kim Jong Un regime may actually have faced different charges at the time of his arrest, according to an eyewitness. The brutalization and terrorism the North Koreans have put upon Otto and the Warmbier family have ended.
When asked if he would bring up the cases of Warmbier and three other Americans detained in North Korea, Rodman told reporters, "That's not my goal right now".
South Korea-born Kim Dong Chul, now aged around 63 or 64, was arrested in October 2015 on charges of espionage and other undisclosed crimes.
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