[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 37 (Thursday, February 28, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1573-S1574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Otto Warmbier

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, in the context of the ongoing 
negotiations with North Korea, there has been a lot of discussion today 
in the media about Otto Warmbier.
  Otto Warmbier was a young man from my hometown of Cincinnati, OH. 
This is an emotional issue for me because, through the process of 
trying to bring Otto home, I got to know his family very well.
  He was a young man with a lot of promise, 22 years old, and a college 
student at the University of Virginia. He had gone as a tourist to 
North Korea. He was pulled out of the line at the airport.
  Here he was, a kindhearted college kid, found himself a prisoner in 
North Korea. He was there for about 18 months. His detainment and his 
sentence were appalling; unacceptable by any standards. At some point 
soon after being sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, from what we 
know, Otto suffered a severe brain injury. What happened? We may never 
know the details, but we do know one thing, and that is he was severely 
mistreated.
  Who did the North Korean Government tell about the fact that he had 
this brain damage? No one. Unbelievably, for the next 15 months of his 
life, they kept this a secret. They denied him access to the best 
medical care he deserved, which of course we would have provided.
  I was in communication with the North Korean Government during this 
time through their offices at the United Nations in New York. They 
didn't even tell us about the terrible mistreatment he had suffered and 
the condition he was in. They refused repeated requests for consular 
access that normally would have been provided to someone who has been 
detained, regardless of their health situation. This included denying 
requests, of course, from me, from others in this body and other bodies 
of Congress but also from the Obama administration, the Trump 
administration, the Red Cross, also from the Government of Sweden, 
which typically acts for us in North Korea as a consular service. I say 
that because while I support engagement with North Korea--in fact, in 
my experience with Otto Warmbier, it makes me even more convinced we 
need to have communication because we had no good lines of 
communication.
  I support the ongoing talks with North Korea, specifically about 
denuclearization. I want to make clear that we can never forget about 
Otto. His treatment at the hands of his captors was unforgivable, and 
it tells us a lot about the nature of the regime. We can't be naive 
about what they did to Otto, about the brutal nature of the regime that 
would do this to an American citizen.
  Of course, it is not just about Otto or other visitors. It is about 
how the people of North Korea are treated, many of whom also have had 
their human rights violated. No one should have to go through what the 
Warmbier family has gone through. They have been incredibly strong, by 
the way, through this whole ordeal. I watched them channel their grief 
into something constructive, exposing some of the human rights abuses 
in North Korea, as an example.

[[Page S1574]]

  Throughout this ordeal, I have stood with Fred and Cindy and their 
entire family. I will continue to, but I also want to say today, as we 
discuss these broader issues with North Korea, let's keep Otto Warmbier 
at the front of our minds. Let's be sure he is high on our agenda and 
in our consciousness as we deal with North Korea and, again, 
understanding, because of our experience with Otto, the brutal nature 
of this regime.