US student sentenced to 15 years in North Korean jail for ‘prank’

North Korea’s supreme court sentenced American student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested while visiting the country, to 15 years of hard labour for crimes against the state.

Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia student, was detained in January for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel in Pyongyang, North Korean media said previously.

“The accused confessed to the serious offence against the DPRK he had committed, pursuant to the US government’s hostile policy toward it, in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist,” the state-controlled KCNA news agency reported, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency published a picture of Warmbier being led from the courtroom by two uniformed guards, with his head bowed, but visibly distressed.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the sentence.

“North Korea’s sentencing of Otto Warmbier to 15 years hard labour for a college-style prank is outrageous and shocking, and should not be permitted to stand,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW’s Asia division, said.

Warmbier’s defence attorney said the gravity of his crime was such that he would not be able to pay even with his death but proposed to the court a sentence reduced from the prosecution’s request of a life sentence, KCNA said. Last month, Warmbier told a media conference in Pyongyang that his crime was “very severe and pre-planned.”

The US State Department did not have an immediate comment.