The grieving parents of Otto Warmbier, the college student who was arrested in North Korea in 2016, are suing the country for just over $1 billion.
Fred and Cindy Warmbier of Wyoming, Ohio, are seeking $1.05 billion in punitive damages and nearly $46 million for suffering in a motion filed in in October, reported the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The motion is part of a civil lawsuit against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, alleging the “rogue regime” took Otto Warmbier hostage “for its own wrongful ends and brutally tortured and murdered him,” reads court records.
Otto Warmbier, who was 22 when he died, spent 18 months in a North Korean prison, accused of committing a hostile act that threatened the “single-minded unity” of the country’s citizens.
North Korean officials alleged he acted at the behest of a church he didn’t attend and the CIA, the motion states.
From Pyongyang in 2016, Warmbier read from a prepared statement before the state media, declaring he committed the “severe crime” of stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel. Despite begging for mercy, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
But after his release in 2017, he returned to America in a coma and suffering extensive brain damage before dying a few days later.
After the June summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump said Warmbier’s death was “not in vain” and helped spur the nations toward diplomacy.
“We appreciate President Trump’s recent comments about our family,” the Warmbiers said in a statement. “We are proud of Otto and miss him. Hopefully, something positive can come from this.”
The 1.05 billion in punitive damages represents about 2.5% of Norther Korea’s 2015 gross domestic product. The amount aims to serve as a deterrent for the country to “change its unlawful behavior in the future,’ the motion states.
