Trump offers support to Otto Warmbier’s family ahead of North Korea summit

President Trump offered a cordial message on Friday to the parents of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died last year after being detained for 17 months in North Korea.

The Washington Post reported that Trump spoke to the student’s parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, as the president prepares for a highly anticipated meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks.

The call came the same day that Trump announced that a date and time had been set for the summit with Kim, though he declined to say exactly when and where the two men would meet.

{mosads}

Trump has also suggested recently that North Korea could release three other Americans being held in the country, saying on Friday that “a lot of good things have already happened with respect to the hostages.”

The Warmbiers are suing North Korea, alleging that the country’s government brutally tortured and murdered their son during his 17-month detention. 

Warmbier was arrested in North Korea in 2016, and charged with spying. He was later coerced into giving a taped confession. 

He was returned to the U.S. in a coma last year, and died shortly after arriving in his hometown of Cincinnati.