U.S. Court Orders $19 Million in Frozen North Korean Funds to Be Paid to Otto Warmbier's Family

A U.S. court has ruled in favor of the family of the late Otto Warmbier, who died after being detained in North Korea, in their lawsuit seeking the release of frozen funds linked to the North Korean regime.

In a decision issued on June 11, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered JPMorgan Chase Bank to release approximately $17.13 million (26 billion won) in frozen assets to Warmbier's parents.

Warmbier's parents had petitioned the court to order the bank to turn over the funds, which were frozen at JPMorgan Chase and linked to the network of Dr. A.Q. Khan of Pakistan, a key external facilitator of North Korea's nuclear weapons development. The court granted their request.

In her ruling, Judge Howell defined the A.Q. Khan network as acting as an "agent or instrumentality" of North Korea, noting that the plaintiffs had successfully proven that the Khan network was the actual sender of the frozen funds.

Warmbier was detained in North Korea in 2016 while visiting as a tourist, where he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on charges of subversion.

He was released in a coma in June of the following year and returned to the United States, but passed away six days later.

Seeking to hold the North Korean regime accountable for Warmbier's death, his family filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2018, winning a $500 million judgment. Since then, they have been tracking North Korean assets scattered around the world.

Previously, the family was granted rights to a portion of the proceeds from the sale of a North Korean vessel seized by the U.S. government for violating UN sanctions, $240,000 in frozen North Korean funds seized by New York state authorities, and approximately $2.2 million in North Korean-linked assets held at the Bank of New York Mellon.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.