--- title: Trump: Summit Wouldn't Have Happened Without Otto Warmbier description: President Donald Trump says his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would not have happened without Otto Warmbier canonical: https://time.com/5309522/donald-trump-otto-warmbier-singapore-summit/ author: Laignee Barron article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-12T09:52:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:32:35.239Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Pays Tribute To Otto Warmbier After Summit og:description: The president said 22-year-old American college student "did not die in vain” og:url: https://time.com/5309522/donald-trump-otto-warmbier-singapore-summit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b15cdb9acc0d47d/698932d4ab6d774ef56b2ee3/rts17ryt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: FILE PHOTO - Otto Warmbier attends a new conference in Pyongyang North Korea og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Pays Tribute To Otto Warmbier After Summit twitter:description: The president said 22-year-old American college student "did not die in vain” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b15cdb9acc0d47d/698932d4ab6d774ef56b2ee3/rts17ryt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says the North Korea Summit Wouldn't Have Happened Without Otto Warmbier > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Laignee Barron](https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Jun 12, 2018 9:52 AM UTC  Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea, attends a news conference in Pyongyang, North Korea on Feb. 29, 2016. Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea, attends a news conference in Pyongyang, North Korea on Feb. 29, 2016.Kyodo/Reuters by [Laignee Barron](https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/) ## Laignee Barron Jun 12, 2018 9:52 AM UTC President Donald Trump said his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would not have happened without [Otto Warmbier](http://time.com/4757085/otto-warmbier-north-korea/), the American college student who [died almost exactly one year ago](http://time.com/4816270/otto-warmbier-release-north-korea-who-is-he/) after he was released from detention in North Korea. Speaking at a press conference after Tuesday’s summit in Singapore, Trump paid tribute to Warmbier. “Without Otto Warmbier, this summit wouldn’t have happened,” the President said. “Otto is someone who did not die in vain.” Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, was touring North Korea when he was arrested for allegedly stealing a propaganda sign. He was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor. Warmbier returned to Ohio in June 2017 in a coma after North Korea released him on “humanitarian grounds.” By then, he had spend 17 months a North Korean prison. He died six days after arriving back in the U.S. North Korean officials said Warmbier [suffered a brain injury](http://time.com/4819826/otto-warmbier-north-korea-father/) after contacting botulism, a form of poisoning, but U.S. doctors found no evidence of the condition. “Something happened from that day,” Trump said at the press conference Tuesday. “It was a terrible thing, it was brutal, but a lot of people started to focus on what was going on — including North Korea.” North Korean officials [accused](http://time.com/4961301/otto-warmbier-north-korea-donald-trump/) Trump of overdramatizing Warmbier’s condition in an effort to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons arsenal. But in his first face-to-face encounter with Kim, Trump was [accused](https://twitter.com/Reaproy/status/1006454023602335745) of ignoring the pariah state’s human rights record. In April, Warmbier’s parents [filed a lawsuit](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-warmbier/parents-sue-north-korea-saying-warmbier-tortured-and-murdered-idUSKBN1HX38L) against North Korea, alleging that the government tortured and murdered their son. Ahead of Tuesday’s highly anticipated summit, Vice President Mike Pence [reportedly said](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/09/politics/trump-north-korea-g7/index.html) Trump traveled to Singapore with Warmbier’s family “on his heart.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5309522/donald-trump-otto-warmbier-singapore-summit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5309522/donald-trump-otto-warmbier-singapore-summit/"},"headline":"President Trump Says the North Korea Summit Wouldn't Have Happened Without Otto Warmbier","datePublished":"2018-06-12T09:52:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:32:35.239Z","description":"He said the 22-year-old American college student \"did not die in vain”","url":"https://time.com/5309522/donald-trump-otto-warmbier-singapore-summit/","keywords":["Foreign Policy","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b15cdb9acc0d47d/698932d4ab6d774ef56b2ee3/rts17ryt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laignee Barron","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laignee-barron/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b15cdb9acc0d47d/698932d4ab6d774ef56b2ee3/rts17ryt.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FILE PHOTO - Otto Warmbier attends a new conference in Pyongyang North Korea","caption":"FILE PHOTO - Otto Warmbier attends a new conference in Pyongyang North Korea","creditText":"Kyodo/Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5309522/donald-trump-otto-warmbier-singapore-summit/","name":"President Trump Says the North Korea Summit Wouldn't Have Happened Without Otto Warmbier"}}]}] ```