North Korea has reportedly released jailed American student Otto Warmbier.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday said the student had been released and is headed back to the U.S. to his family, according to The Associated Press.

Warmbier's release was secured at the direction of President Trump, Tillerson said.

ADVERTISEMENT

North Korea's high court in 2016 sentenced Warmbier to 15 years in prison with hard labor after he tearfully confessed to trying to steal a political banner.

The court held that Warmbier had committed a crime "pursuant to the U.S. government's hostile policy toward [the North], in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist."

Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, had been charged with subversion.

Last month, North Korea announced it had detained another American citizen for unspecified hostile acts against the state.