2nd LD Writethru: American student Warmbier sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in DPRK

American student Otto Frederick Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the country's Supreme Court announced Wednesday.

Warmbier, 21, was a student of finance at the University of Virginia. He admitted in court to trying to take a political slogan from a hotel.

The sentence includes days of hard labor going back to Feb. 4, and the ruling is unappealable, the Supreme Court said.

The Supreme Court said that Warmbier on Jan. 1 attempted to take a political slogan from a staff-only area at Yanggakdo International Hotel, where he stayed during his tour of Pyongyang.

But the slogan was too heavy to carry. It dropped to the ground after Warmbier took it down from the wall. Warmbier escaped from the scene. He was arrested and detained by the DPRK authorities at Pyongyang International Airport on Jan. 2.

Warmbier was charged with supporting the U.S.'s hostile policy against the DPRK and undermining the unity of the country's people.

Warmbier was quoted as saying that he was asked by the Friendship United Methodist Church and a university group called the Z Society to bring the slogan back to the U.S.

"The aim was to harm the work ethic and motivation of the DPRK people," Warmbier said, adding that he was used and manipulated by the church and the Z society.

The Z Society is a secretive organization at the University of Virginia. Membership is typically anonymous.

Surveillance footage at Yanggakdo International Hotel was presented to the court showing how Warmbier committed the act and then tried to leave the scene. The T-shirt and shoes he wore that day as well as his passport were also shown as evidence.

Warmbier confessed that his direct objective of his action was to "solve the desperate financial situation of his family." The Friendship United Methodist Church had promised him a used car worth 10,000 U.S. dollars. He was also promised membership in the Z Society.

Should he be detained, he would receive 200,000 dollars for tuition fees for his younger brother and sister as long as he doesn't expose the church in his confession, he said.

During the trial, Warmbier cried desperately and begged the court to save his life. He looked pale and seemed unable to walk straight when he was guarded out of the court room after the ruling was made.

On Feb. 29, Warmbier told a press conference in Pyongyang that he apologized to the DPRK people and the government for the "worst mistake" he had ever made.

He also begged for forgiveness and for help in any possible way to rescue him, claiming that he was only a "political victim of the U.S.'s consistent hostile policy against the DPRK."

The trial came amid high tensions on the Korean Peninsula with the United States and its ally South Korea carrying out their largest-ever military drills, which will last till April 30. The drills involve a "beheading operation" that targets the DPRK leadership and plans to destroy the major facilities harboring weapons of mass destruction. Endi