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The death of Otto Warmbier escalates North Korea situation

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
In this March 16, 2016 photo, American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea. The death last week of American student Warmbier, who fell into a coma after being arrested in North Korea, has led to increased calls for the release of other Americans being held by North Korea. questions about whether his tour agency was adequately prepared for its trips into the hard-line communist state. The Young Pioneer Tours agency built up a business attracting young travelers with cut-rate, hard-partying adventures into one of the world’s most isolated countries. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)
In this March 16, 2016 photo, American student Otto Warmbier, center, is escorted at the Supreme Court in Pyongyang, North Korea. The death last week of American student Warmbier, who fell into a coma after being arrested in North Korea, has led to increased calls for the release of other Americans being held by North Korea. questions about whether his tour agency was adequately prepared for its trips into the hard-line communist state. The Young Pioneer Tours agency built up a business attracting young travelers with cut-rate, hard-partying adventures into one of the world’s most isolated countries. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File) Jon Chol Jin AP

Kim Jong Un, the dictator who inherited rule of North Korea, seems ignorant of the rest of the world and particularly of how North Korea is perceived. In the wake of the needless, cruel death of American student Otto Warmbier, sentenced to 15 years of hard labor essentially for a prank, Kim Jong Un is in more trouble than he can imagine.

He and his predecessor/father, the late Kim Jong Il, have long ruled with fear and megalomania, and they taunt both the United States and South Korea, strengthened by a trade alliance with China. President Donald Trump has claimed his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping will help rein in North Korea, but the senseless death of Wambier, who died after being brought home, has stirred Trump’s rhetoric.

China’s not going to cut North Korea off, though it could by ceasing all trade. But North Korea’s ambition for nuclear weapons is dangerous in particular to China. So Trump finds himself in a troubling foreign policy crisis. Warmbier’s death makes it imperative that North Korea release three other Americans it has detained. Americans must hope Trump has his top foreign policy people working behind the scenes to get that done.

The country does not need an inexperienced president facing a crisis of this magnitude with what appears to be a yet-to-be-completed foreign policy team. Let us hope Trump puts aside his tendency to respond emotionally and personally to any challenge and formulates a strong response to Warmbier’s death without a military confrontation.

This story was originally published June 21, 2017 at 10:00 PM with the headline "The death of Otto Warmbier escalates North Korea situation."

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