Otto Warmbier may have attempted suicide while he was imprisoned in North Korea, according to a new report published on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old Virginia University scholarship student was also never physically tortured by the North Korean authorities during his captivity in 2016 and 2017, the story claims.

Writing in GQ Magazine, author Doug Bock Clark accuses President Trump of promoting the torture theory to justify his tough stance against Kim Jong-un, before stopping mentioning it after relations warmed prior to the Singapore summit.

Otto Warmbier is pictured crying in a North Korean court after being sentenced to 15 months hard labor in March 2017; and right, on June 13, in a vegetative state while being carried off an airplane at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati

Warmbier was arrested during a budget tour of the hermit state in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15-years imprisonment.

When he returned to his family in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 13, he was in a vegetative state and unable to speak to extensive brain damage, which the Kim regime dubiously blamed on food poisoning. He died six days later.

Warmbier's parents, Fred and Cindy, said their son had been tortured, citing as evidence his brain damage, a scar on his foot, and his misaligned teeth which they believed had been wrenched by a pair of pliers.

President Trump supported this interpretation in numerous speeches and public statements, while intelligence reports leaked to the New York Times provided more apparent evidence of torture.

However, Clark - who examined Warmbier's case over a six-month period - cites a pathology report that suggests the student was not subjected to physical torture.

Dr Lakshmi Kode Sammarco found no significant scars, noting that the one on his foot was not indicative of torture, and found his teeth were 'natural and in good repair'. They could have been misaligned by an accident, this theory suggests.

Warmbier looks stony faced as he is carried away by two North Korean guards after being sentenced to hard labor by a court in March 2017

She also found that Warmbier's brain had been damaged on both sides, indicating that it had been starved of oxygen rather than hurt by an impact to the head, which would only have only damaged part of the organ.

Clark cites this report and the opinions of several experts to suggest that Warmbier became unconscious after some kind of accident, such as an allergic reaction.

The author then suggests the brain damage, which happened after Warmbier's sentencing, was caused by a suicide attempt that involved the student preventing himself from breathing.

Warmbier had just been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, the author writes, and images of him being dragged stony faced outside the court by two guards are evidence of his mental turmoil.

President Trump meets with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un during a summit at Sentosa Island, Singapore, on June 12

Similarly, Clark does not rule out that Warmbier was subjected to some form of mental torture, which falls under the UN definition of torture alongside physical methods.

However, the author takes his claim that the evidence for physical torture was lacking to argue that the Trump administration repeated these allegations to justify its previous aggressive stance towards North Korea.

Trump's mentions of Warmbier's case coincided with a dramatic worsening of relations between the US and North Korea, with the President making his infamous claim of having a 'bigger' nuclear button than his counterpart in January 2018.

The President regularly mentioned claims Warmbier had been tortured to justify his tough stance, relying on what Clark views as flawed intelligence reports.

One example came in his State of the Union address in January 2018, during which he pledged to respond to the 'torture of Otto Warmbier' by keeping 'maximum pressure' on Kim.

Yet as relations improved, Trump mentioned Warmbier's case less and less, Clark says, suggesting that this was because his case had 'outlived its usefulness' for the President.

Author Doug Bock Clark suggests Warmbier (pictured before leaving for North Korea) was not physically tortured and may have attempted suicide in jail

His report notes that during the Singapore summit with Kim in June, Trump failed to mention Warmbier once in his opening remarks.

When asked by a reporter why he was praising a dictator responsible for the death of an American high school student, Trump replied that Warmbier had not 'died in vain' as the summit would have been impossible without him.

Dailymail.com has contacted McGuire Woods, a law firm which represents the Warmbier family, to ask if they would like to comment on the GQ article.

If you are concerned about any issues involving suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255.

Call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details.

In Australia, for confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14.