Recently, an American student was detained in North Korea. Otto Warmbier, a 21 year old student studying economics at the University of Virginia, was detained by the North Korean government for what they considered to be a very serious crime against the government, by stealing a poster from a restricted area in a hotel in Pyongyang North Korea, while on a field trip with his school. While Warmbier's decision may have been rash and foolish, It is no excuse for the North Korean government to give such a harsh and stiff sentence, especially to an American citizen. Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, a very extreme and heartless punishment for such a small offense. I urge the United States government to take action immediately for the safety and well being of this young man, as well as his family. I cannot imagine what it would be like to find out that you had lost a member of you're own family in North Korea, and that you wouldn't be seeing that person for 15 years, possibly never again if that person died while serving time in a labor camp. Something must be done immediately.
