Fred Warmbier: ‘Otto is a fighter’

WYOMING, OHIO — His voice cracks as he clutches the lapel of his jacket.

It's the tan jacket Otto Warmbier was wearing on Feb. 29, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea, where the then- 21-year-old from Wyoming, Ohio, confessed to stealing a poster, begged for mercy and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Now, Otto's dad, Fred Warmbier, is wearing the same jacket to a press conference, his first public address since Otto, who is in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness," was returned to Cincinnati Tuesday night.

Otto is in stable condition, according to hospital officials. Fred doesn't elaborate.

“We’re trying to make him comfortable,” he says. “... I’m so proud of Otto, my son, who has been in a pariah regime for the last 18 months, brutalized and terrorized. And he’s now home with his family. I can share my spirit with his spirit, and I’m just so happy for that.”

More:Otto Warmbier lands in Cincinnati

It was an emotional 20-minute press conference on Thursday, where Fred Warmbier alternately praised his son’s courage, thanked President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman for their help and criticized former President Barack Obama.

Could the Obama administration have done more? asked a reporter.

"I think the results speak for themselves," Fred said. 

President Trump called Fred about 10 p.m. Wednesday. He asked how the family was doing and wanted to know about Otto. He told Fred he was sorry for how it turned out. 

"It was a really nice conversation," Fred said. "It was gracious and it was nice, and it felt good. I thank him for that." 

Fred said he is proud of his son’s “adventurous side,” the same trait that led Otto to take a trip to North Korea in the first place.

He also sharply rebuked the North Korean regime, which he said “lures” Americans to visit, “and then they take them hostage, and they do things to them.”

At times, he slipped into past tense.

“Otto is a sweet, loving, kind person, and that’s what we loved about him,” Fred said. “That’s what his teachers loved about him...”

Otto was a University of Virginia student when he visited North Korea with a tour group at the end of 2015. He was detained on Jan. 2, 2016, as the group was preparing to leave the country. 

Otto was charged with engaging in anti-state activity and sentenced in March 2016 after a televised trial in North Korea. The Warmbiers got one letter from him, then they heard nothing. On Tuesday, Otto was flown back to Ohio. 

North Korea said it released Otto for “humanitarian” reasons. Fred said he doesn’t believe that at all. And he doesn’t care.

“We’re not burdened with whatever North Korea says or does any longer,” he said.

Otto landed at Cincinnati's Lunken Airport about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday. When he saw his son again for the first time, Fred knelt beside him and hugged him.

"And I told him that I missed him, and I was so glad that he made it home." 

Wyoming is a small, affluent community of about 8,400 people just north of Cincinnati. The poverty rate is 2.2 percent. The schools are among the best in the state.

Fred, a small business owner, spoke to reporters at Wyoming High School, Otto’s alma mater. Otto graduated in 2013 as salutatorian. He was a standout soccer player. He thrived at WHS, said social studies teacher Todd Siler.

“I think it’s the perfect place to celebrate him,” Siler said. “This is home.”

The Warmbiers' story has garnered national attention, and the school parking lot was packed early Thursday morning with local and out-of-town reporting crews. Police guarded the entrance. In the media center, there were two tables set up with five paper name placards, two for the teachers moderating the discussion, one for a University of Cincinnati Medical Center spokeswoman, and one each for Otto’s mother and father.

At about 9:30 a.m., though, roughly 30 minutes before the conference would begin, a staff member quietly removed the name tag for Cindy Warmbier, Otto’s mom. She decided to stay at the hospital with her son, Fred said. 

“She knows that Otto is a fighter,” he said, “and she and I firmly believe that he fought to stay alive through the worst the North Koreans could put him through.”  

Deirdre Shesgreen and Associated Press contributed.