A 20-something Otto Warmbier was accused of making a mistake in 2016 in a hermit-ruled country that overzealously punished him for the “crime” of removing a poster from a wall.

Warmbier, of Wyoming, was buried in Springdale last Thursday after being sent home in a coma — 17 months after he arrived in North Korea.

The last public image of him showed him being taken away by stern-faced law enforcement officials, but there is a better image of Warmbier that is important to note. Many accounts show him to be a friend to the downtrodden, class president, and a bright and accomplished son on whom his parents doted.

He did not deserve to die for the “crime” he committed.

Moving forward, the Trump administration will have to figure out how to handle relations with North Korea, which continues to provoke by testing ballistic missiles, thumbing its nose at international law and conducting nuclear tests. North Korea gets most of its economic support from China through means that skirt traditional economic systems. …

The United States can work with China to place more pressure on North Korea, possibly through economic sanctions. President Donald Trump has not ruled out military action against North Korea, but has been careful in discussing plans publicly, a practice that has become routine in previous administrations.

Meanwhile, there are many questions that remain to be answered, including how Warmbier came to be in a vegetative state, his exact cause of death and how the United States will respond to an irrational country with nuclear capabilities and a hair trigger.

— The Cincinnati Enquirer