If there was ever any doubt that the North Korean government is brutal, sadistic, and evil, the death by torture of Otto Warmbier should remove all doubt as to what kind of regime Kim Jong-un runs.

Today, his parents gave a heartbreaking interview to “Fox and Friends” about what happened when Otto was brought back to the United States after 18 months’ imprisonment in North Korea. The descriptions are graphic.

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/912681818964549634
Let those details sink in. Whatever your opinion of why Otto Warmbier came to be in North Korea in the first place, no reasonable person should believe that you should be beaten into a coma, be blinded and deafened, and have your teeth rearranged by pliers, all for an alleged theft of a poster. This is torture, plain and simple. And the reality is that he was returned because North Korea knew he was going to die, and didn’t want to have to deal with that. Of course, North Korea protested their innocence when Warmbier was returned.

“The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week after his return to the U.S. in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency in June. “To make it clear, we are the biggest victim of this incident.”

North Korea claimed Warmbier slipped into a coma after contracting botulism and taking a sleeping pill and that he was provided proper medical care.

I had no idea that medieval dentistry was a treatment for botulism in North Korea. Yes, I am being heavily sarcastic.

Fred and Cindy Warmbier want North Korea listed as a state sponsor of terror.

“We see North Korea claiming to be a victim and the world is picking on them, and we’re here to tell you North Korea is not a victim,” Fred said. “They are terrorists. They kidnapped Otto, they tortured him, [and] they intentionally injured him.”

He added: “It was astounding to Cindy and I to discover that North Korea is not listed as a state sponsor of terror. We owe it to the world to list it to North Korea as a state sponsor of terror.”

The Trump administration has placed North Korea on its revised travel ban list. Why not put it down as a state sponsor of terror as well?

Decent people should have compassion for these parents without needing to denigrate their son for his (allegedly – remember, we only have North Korea’s word that he actually did anything besides be an American in North Korea in a sanctioned travel group; his “confession” on North Korean television cannot be taken at face value) one poor decision. The villain in this story is North Korea, and given the brutal details of Otto Warmbier’s condition when he was sent home to die, we need to be aware of just what kind of regime is firing missiles and testing nuclear devices.