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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that North Korea has released Otto Warmbier, an American serving a 15-year prison term with hard labour for alleged anti-state acts.
Tillerson said that Warmbier is on his way back to the U.S. to be re-united with his family. He said in a statement that the State Department secured Warmbier’s release at the direction of President Donald Trump. The State Department continues discussing three other detained Americans with North Korea.
The announcement comes as former US basketball player Dennis Rodman is paying a return visit to North Korea.
Warmbier is a University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati. He was sentenced in March after a televised tearful public confession to trying to steal a propaganda banner.