Otto Warmbier's mother: North Korea is a 'cancer,' criticizes 'charade' diplomacy

WASHINGTON – The mother of Otto Warmbier on Friday heavily criticized North Korea's "charade" diplomacy, adding that the country is a "cancer on the earth."

Cindy Warmbier spoke during a Hudson Institute seminar, doubting North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's intentions on working with the United States and saying that all he does is lie.

“There’s a charade going on right now. It’s called diplomacy,” Warmbier said.

"How can you have diplomacy with someone who never tells the truth? I’m all for it," she said of Kim. "But I’m very skeptical. He lies, he lies, he lies — all for himself and his regime."

More: Donald Trump: No money paid for Otto Warmbier's release from North Korea

This was the first public appearance by Cindy Warmbier since the Washington Post reported that the U.S. was presented with a $2 million bill for the hospital care of Otto Warmbier.

President Donald Trump has denied paying the invoice, but the Post reported that the main U.S. envoy sent to retrieve the college student signed an agreement to pay the medical bill per instructions from the president. The bill was sent to the Treasury Department where it was unpaid throughout 2017, according to the Post.

Cindy Warmbier said during her appearance that she would have given money to North Korea for her son's safe return.

"Had I known that they wanted money for Otto, I would have gladly given them money from day one," she said. "First of all, they want everything they can get from anyone they take."

Otto Warmbier was ending a visit to North Korea in January 2016 when authorities arrested him at the airport. Three weeks later, he delivered a stilted “confession” that he stole a poster from a hotel.

“North Korea to me is a cancer on the earth. And if we ignore this cancer, it’s not going to go away. It’s going to kill all of us,” Cindy Warmbier said on Friday. “Otto was all about love and goodness. He always saw the best in people. ... So I know when they took Otto, he thought he’d be released.

“I know he was sorry he ever went into that godforsaken place,” she continued.

In March 2016, Warmbier was convicted in a show trial of crimes against the state and sentenced to 15 years at hard labor. For 15 months, the family heard nothing about the University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati.

More: President Trump on Otto Warmbier: From 'brutal regime...we'll handle it' to 'I will take (Kim) at his word.'

In June 2017, the North Korean government released Otto Warmbier, but he returned to Cincinnati with a massive brain injury that had left him blind, deaf and unable to move under his own power.

“My gorgeous boy – who every girl had an immediate crush on – looked like a monster,” Cindy Warmbier said during her remarks at the conference. “The look in his eye was absolute horror – horror, like he’d seen the devil, and he had. He was with the devil.”

Otto Warmbier died June 19, 2017, at 22.

“Unless we keep the pressure on North Korea, they are not going to change, and I am very afraid that we are going to let up on this pressure,” Cindy Warmbier said. “There are still a lot of families here that deserve to see their family members.”

She said the labor camps in North Korea were actually concentration camps.

“They only difference between Hitler and him (Kim Jong Un) is he’s doing it to all of his people and other people, too," Cindy Warmbier said.

“They have no respect for human beings. This is not only a nuclear problem. This is a problem with absolute evil.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Otto Warmbier's mother: North Korea is a 'cancer,' criticizes 'charade' diplomacy