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American student Otto Warmbier speaks during a press conference on Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea.(Photo: Kim Kwang Hyon, AP)
North Korea’s Supreme Court on Wednesday sentenced an American tourist to 15 years in jail with hard labor for trying to steal a political banner from a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hotel, according to media reports.
Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old<span style="color: Red;">*</span>University of Virginia<span style="color: Red;">*</span>undergraduate student from Wyoming, Ohio, was arrested in January<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for allegedly "perpetrating a hostile act"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>against the regime.
Warmbier was convicted of subversion and sentenced in a one-hour trial Wednesday morning, the Associated Press reported.
He was presented to the media in Pyongyang before his trial, where he apologized for trying to steal the banner from a staff-only area of the hotel he was staying at. He said he wanted it as a trophy for a church member<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in Wyoming.
A picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling North Korean Workers Party, on Sept. 8, 2015, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center front, and Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, second from right, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and first vice-president of the Council of State, watching an art performance by the Moranbong Band and the State Merited Chorus in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sept. 7, 2015. Bermudez led a Cuban delegation to North Korea to mark the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between North Korea and Cuba. <span style="color: Red;">*</span> Rodong Sinmun, European Pressphoto Agency
Men and women pump their fists in the air and chant "defend!" as they carry propaganda slogans calling for reunification of their country during the "Pyongyang Mass Rally on the Day of the Struggle Against the U.S.," attended by approximately 100,000 North Koreans to mark the 65th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War at the Kim Il Sung stadium, Thursday, June 25, 2015, in Pyongyang, North Korea. The month of June in North Korea is known as the "Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month" and it's a time for North Koreans to swarm to war museums, mobilize for gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States and join in a general, nationwide whipping up of the anti-American sentiment.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> Wong Maye-E, AP
North Koreans gather in front of a portrait of their late leader Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il, right, paying respects to their late leader Kim Jong Il, to mark the third anniversary of his death, Wednesday Dec. 17 at Pyong Chon District in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea marked the end of a three-year mourning period for the late leader Kim Jong Il on Wednesday, opening the way for his son, Kim Jong Un, to put a more personal stamp on the way the country is run. <span style="color: Red;">*</span> Kim Kwang Hyon, AP
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Warmbier was arrested while visiting the country with Young Pioneer Tours, an agency specializing in travel to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>North Korea. The State Department warns against travel to the North.
North Korea said he traveled to the country<span style="color: Red;">*</span>as a tourist but with the real aim of destroying<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the unity of North Korea with<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"the tacit connivance of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>U.S. government."
USA TODAY
U.S. student detained in North Korea apologizes
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