North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Su Young said third-year Commerce student Otto Warmbier is being used as a “tactic” by the United States to create internal issues within the DPRK, the Associated Press reported following an interview with Ri in New York Saturday.
Warmbier was detained in North Korea on Jan. 2 after allegedly attempting to steal a banner in the Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang.
On March 16, the North Korean Supreme Court charged Warmbier with subversion and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor. Detainees who have been given similar sentences have not served the full term.
The State Department has previously said Warmbier is being used for political purposes. The agency has condemned Warmbier’s sentencing, with a spokesperson calling it “unduly harsh.”
However, Ri maintained North Korea’s charge of subversion and said Warmbier was part of an American plan against the DPRK leadership, the AP reports.
The DPRK alleges Warmbier attempted to steal a banner with the support of the Z Society, an Ohio church and the Central Intelligence Agency.
"He was not only collecting very simple information in our country during his visit, but he was a part of this information collection process that would lead to an operation targeting our leadership,” Ri said, according to the AP.
Ri went further, describing North Korea as “completely misinterpreted to the whole entire world.”
“I can for sure tell you that the country that has the best human rights would be the DPRK,” Ri told the AP.
The AP reports Ri said he would let the North Korean government know Americans are concerned about Warmbier and he also said previous detainees have been released following visits by U.S. officials.
Former President Bill Clinton, for example, visited North Korea in 2009 as part of a delegation that resulted in the release of journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling.
The most recent U.S. official to visit the DPRK on a trip to free detained Americans was Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who visited North Korea in 2014 and secured the release of Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae.
"I will let the corresponding authorities know when I go back to Pyongyang that you are, also the American people, very much interested in how he is doing currently,” Ri said, according to the AP.
Ri told the AP the next steps in Warmbier’s case are “beyond my jurisdiction.”
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