North Korea releases U.S. citizen jailed last year for trying to steal a propaganda banner
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Reporting from WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says North Korea has released Otto Warmbier, an American serving a 15-year prison term with hard labor for alleged anti-state acts.
Tillerson says that Warmbier is on his way back to the U.S. to be reunited with his family. He says in a statement that the State Department secured Warmbier’s release at the direction of President Trump. Tillerson says the State Department continues discussing three other detained Americans with North Korea.
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Warmbier is a University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati. He was sentenced in March 2016 after a televised tearful public confession to trying to steal a propaganda banner.
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