February 29, 2016•Update: March 04, 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
An American student who has been held in North Korea for weeks "begged for forgiveness" Monday, while admitting that he had plotted to undermine the reputation of Pyongyang's notorious regime in return for a car or cash from a church back home.
The detainee was paraded before state and foreign media in the style of apparently forced past confessions involving arrested foreign tourists in the North.
Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old student from the University of Virginia, explained in a statement released by Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency that he "committed severe crimes" on New Year's Day after entering North Korea as a tourist on Dec. 29 of last year.
According to the confession, Warmbier's main crime was to steal a political slogan from a staff-only area of a hotel as a "trophy" for the Friendship United Methodist Church, having been tasked to do so by a friend's mother.
The student claimed that he was convinced in return for incentives offered by the church, as his family was suffering from "very severe financial difficulties”.
He also alleged that a so-called 'Z Society' had encouraged him along with "the connivance of the United States Administration”.
Moreover, Warmbier praised North Korea's "humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself and of the very fair and square legal procedures”.
The 21-year-old's arrest mirrors several previous cases linked to churches and religious missions, which have raised particular suspicion in the North – where one visitor was infamously detained for leaving behind a copy of the Bible.
While most of North Korea's foreign detainees are released within weeks or months, Canadian pastor Lim Hyeon-soo is currently serving a life of hard labor following years of making trips to the reclusive state.
A South Korean New York University student was held for six months last year after entering the North with the apparent aim of improving Seoul-Pyongyang ties.
North Korea may attempt to use Warmbier as leverage as the United States has been pushing to strengthen sanctions against Pyongyang for its fourth ever nuclear test and latest rocket launch in defiance of United Nations resolutions.
