McCain: Americans ‘stupid’ to still want to travel to NKorea

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain said Tuesday that Americans who are “stupid” enough to still want to travel to North Korea should be required to sign a waiver absolving the U.S. government of any blame should they be harmed while there.

McCain, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said North Korea “murdered” Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old American college student who died just days after North Korea released him from detention in a coma. He had arrived in Ohio on June 13 after being held for more than 17 months.

“They just murdered him,” McCain said.

The University of Virginia student was accused of trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting with a tour group and was convicted of subversion. He was sentenced in March 2016 to 15 years in prison with hard labor.

“There should at least be a form for them to fill out that says, ‘If I go to North Korea, I understand I am taking great risk and I do not hold the American government responsible. Now I hope the American government will help, etc., etc. But I realize what has happened to previous American citizens, including their deaths,’” McCain, R-Ariz., said in a brief interview.

“I would have that first because if people are that stupid that they still want to go to that country then at least they assume the responsibility for their welfare,” McCain said.

The Trump administration is considering banning travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea, officials said Tuesday, as outrage grew over the death of American student Otto Warmbier and President Donald Trump declared it a “total disgrace.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has the authority to cut off travel to North Korea with the stroke of the pen, has been weighing such a move since late April, when American teacher Tony Kim was detained in Pyongyang, a senior State Department official said. No ban is imminent, but deliberations gained new urgency after Warmbier’s death, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal diplomatic discussions.

From Capitol Hill to the White House, pressure mounted for a tough U.S. response, even as U.S. diplomats sought to protect others Americans from facing a similar fate. Three other U.S. citizens, including Kim, are still being held in North Korea.

“It’s a total disgrace what happened to Otto. That should never ever be allowed to happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office. In a possible rebuke of his predecessor, President Barack Obama, Trump added of Warmbier: “Frankly, if he were brought home sooner, I think the result would have been a lot different.”

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. should think about banning U.S. citizens from visiting North Korea.

“I think we should strongly consider it,” Corker said. “It puts us in a really precarious situation when Americans are detained there.”

The United States, South Korea and others have accused North Korea of using foreign detainees has hostages to secure diplomatic concessions. Three Americans remain in custody in the North.

Funeral planned

A public funeral service is planned Thursday at a high school attended by Otto Warmbier.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammaraco said the office accepted the case of Otto Warmbier, who died Monday in a Cincinnati hospital.

The coroner’s office daily report Tuesday included Warmbier in its listings with cause of death termed “pending.”

Wambier’s parents did not cite a specific cause of death, but cited “awful, torturous mistreatment” by North Korea. Doctors had described Warmbier’s condition as a state of “unresponsive wakefulness” and said he suffered a “severe neurological injury” of unknown cause.

The funeral will be held at 9 a.m. at Wyoming High School, where Warmbier was an athlete and salutatorian of his 2013 class.

“All those that wish to join his family in celebrating his life are cordially invited,” said the Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum.

By Richard Lardner

Associated Press

and AP reports

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