Glenn: North Korea killed US student as an act of war

Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was held prisoner during a trip to North Korea, has died shortly after coming home to his parents in Ohio.

Released in a coma last week, Warmbier was 22 years old when he died Monday. During a five-day visit in North Korea, Warmbier was accused of trying to take a propaganda poster from his hotel room. He was arrested by North Korean authorities for allegedly committing a “hostile act” against the regime and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

North Korea abruptly sent Warmbier home last week after detaining him for 17 months, saying that he contracted botulism while in prison and went into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

“When Otto returned to Cincinnati late on June 13th he was unable to speak, unable to see and unable to react to verbal commands,” his parents said in a statement given to the Washington Post. “He looked very uncomfortable — almost anguished. Although we would never hear his voice again, within a day the countenance of his face changed — he was at peace. He was home and we believe he could sense that.”

Glenn Beck, Pat Gray and Stu Burguiere talked about why North Korea essentially killed the 22-year-old on Tuesday’s “The Glenn Beck Radio Program.”

Glenn pointed out that North Korea usually doesn’t abuse or torture American prisoners because they don’t want to incite protests from humanitarian groups or give people more reason to criticize the hermit kingdom. What changed?

The U.S. is close to war with North Korea, which is why the dictator-led regime was willing to abuse an American and return him only when he was close to death. Kim Jong Un has been threatening U.S. allies and conducting missile tests during the past few months.

“He was killed and beaten not because he took a poster or tried to take a poster,” Glenn said. “He was beaten because he was an American citizen, and his death was meant to intimidate us.”

To see more from Glenn, visit his channel on TheBlaze and listen live to “The Glenn Beck Radio Program” with Glenn Beck, Pat Gray, Stu Burguiere and Jeffy Fisher weekdays 9 a.m.–noon ET on TheBlaze Radio Network.