Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor by North Korea. Before the trial, the 21-year-old said he had tried to steal a propaganda banner as a trophy for a friend’s mother who said she wanted to put it up in her church. He said he was offered a used car worth $10,000 if he could get a banner and, if he got arrested and didn’t return, his mother would be paid $200,000 in the form form of a charitable donation. Warmbier said he accepted the offer because his family was “suffering from very severe financial difficulties.” The AP also reports that “in previous cases, people who have been detained in North Korea and made a public confession often recant those statements after their release.”
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