A federal judge has given the green light for the sale of a seized North Korea vessel to pay down the judgement awarded to the parents of Otto Warmbier, who died after being detained in the hermit kingdom.

Parents Frederick and Cynthia Warmbier won a $500 million judgment against North Korea for the death of their son, who was arrested at the Pyongyang airport in 2016 — during a guided tour of the rogue state ahead of a study abroad program in Hong Kong — for stealing a propaganda poster.

Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for the alleged theft and served 18 months before the Trump administration negotiated his release. But he was sent home in a vegetative state and died a week later.

Proceeds from the sale of the ship, the Wise Honest, which reportedly could go for up to $3 million, will go to the Warmbiers to pay down the judgment. Manhattan federal court Judge Kevin Castel ruled in a filing signing off on the sale of the ship.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. ruled last year that Otto Warmbier was “more likely than not barbarically tortured to extract a false confession” and said his detention was likely intended to be used as a bargaining chip to satisfy its foreign policy objectives.

The 17,061-ton cargo vessel, North Korea’s second largest cargo ship, was seized by the US in May because it was shipping coal — which violated US sanctions against North Korea.

To date, the North Korean regime has not responded to the Warmbiers’ wrongful death claims, but has denied accusations that Warmbier was tortured during his detention, saying that the American was given “medical treatments and care with all sincerity” while he was a prisoner.