U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has refused to say that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was responsible for the death of a U.S. college student who was imprisoned by the regime.

The death of college student Otto Warmbier, who died shortly after his release from the North in 2017, resurfaced in the media after U.S. President Donald Trump said he believes Kim's claim that he did not know about the case. Trump made the remark following his summit with the North last week. 

Pompeo was asked by Gray Television on Saturday whether he also takes the North Korean leader at his word.

According to the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, Pompeo said the U.S. takes very seriously North Korean human rights violations and that the North Korean regime is responsible for Warmbier’s death. 

Pompeo then defended the Trump administration's diplomatic approach on the North, saying that the Obama administration's approach of strategic patience didn't work. He added that Washington is trying to fix it and trying to get North Korea to correct course so no family will have to go through what Warmbier’s family did.

[Photo : YONHAP News]