Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) announced Friday he intends to introduce a bill officially blaming North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the death of U.S. student Otto Warmbier.
“I’ll be introducing a bipartisan resolution next week affirming that Congress holds Kim Jong Un responsible for the death of Otto Warmbier,” Malinowski tweeted.
President Trump sparked a furor when he said he believed Kim was unaware of Warmbier’s treatment.
The student was detained in North Korea for allegedly taking a poster while studying there in 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor but returned to the United States in a comatose state in 2017 and died shortly after.
{mosads}“He tells me he didn’t know about it, and I take him at his word,” Trump said Thursday during a denuclearization summit with Kim.
Republicans on Capitol Hill were quick to pan the remark, expressing skepticism that the North Korean leader was unaware of the circumstances around a high-profile prisoner.
“I personally find that statement extremely hard to believe,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
“We can’t be naive about what they did to Otto, about the brutal nature of the regime that would do this to an American citizen,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) warned. “I can’t tell you specifically who was knowledgeable of it but I would assume it goes straight to the top.”
Trump backtracked his statements Friday, saying he had been “misinterpreted” and that he “of course” holds North Korea accountable for Warmbier’s death.