North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho embraces Fred Warmbier, father of Otto Warmbier, while Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence looks on.@VPPressSec/Twitter
- North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho met and embraced Fred Warmbier, father of Otto Warmbier — the US student who died days after his release from a North Korean prison.
- Fred was invited by Vice President Mike Pence for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Though the atrocities committed by the North Korean regime are numerous and well-documented, stories like North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho’s inspires hope for those suffering under political oppression.
And as Seong-ho returned to South Korea after making a rousing appearance at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address last week, he was met with the father of another victim who suffered at the hands North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
On Thursday, Seong-ho met and embraced Fred Warmbier, the father of Otto Warmbier — the US student who died in 2016 after being imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months.
Otto was arrested in North Korea in 2016 on suspicion of stealing a political poster and was sentenced to hard labor by North Korean authorities. Otto was released, but returned to the US in a vegetative state due to extensive brain damage. He died six days later.
Fred Warmbier, who also attended Trump’s State of the Union address, has since denounced North Korea.
“North Korea is not a victim – they are terrorists,” Warmbier said in September. “They kidnapped Otto, they tortured him, they intentionally injured him.”
Warmbier was invited as a guest of Vice President Mike Pence amid the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. The two will be attending the opening ceremony, where a North Korean delegation will also be present.
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