Anchor: North Korea has released a U.S. college student 17 months after he was detained on charges of “hostile acts against the state.” The man, Otto Warmbier, was medically evacuated in a coma after North Korea claims he fell ill and was a given a sleeping pill shortly after his March 2016 trial.
Alannah Hill has this report.
 
Report: The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday that 22-year-old University of Virginia student, Otto Warmbier, has been released from North Korea.
 
U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson on Tuesday notified a U.S. senate committee about the release.

[Sound bite: U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson]
"The Department of State has secured the release of Otto Warmbier from North Korea. He is on his way, en route home to be reunited with his family. We continue our discussions with the North Korean regime regarding the release of the other three American citizens that have been detained. We have no comment on Mr. Warmbier's condition, out of respect to him and the family and that is the statement that was released."

Warmbier is said to be in a coma. 

The Washington Post reported that his family was recently informed that North Korean officials had told American envoys that Warmbier contracted botulism after his trial, was given a sleeping pill and never woke up.

Warmbier was visiting Pyongyang in January of last year on a stopover on his way to Hong Kong when he was arrested by North Korean authorities.
 
The North arrested Warmbier on accusations of stealing propaganda materials at a Pyongyang hotel.
 
In March of last year, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for “hostile acts against the state” and has been held in the North since then.

On Wednesday diplomatic sources said that U.S. chief nuclear negotiator Joseph Yun arrived in Pyongyang on Monday to secure Warmbier's release. The Washington Post reports Yun was informed of his condition when the North Korean ambassador to the UN urgently requested a meeting with him in New York. 

The request followed meetings in Oslo, Norway last month where Yun and high-level North Korean officials agreed that Swedish diplomats in Pyongyang would be allowed to visit four Americans imprisoned by the North. The diplomats were only allowed to see one detainee, which was not Warmbier.
Alannah Hill, KBS World Radio News. 

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