Kevin McCarthy contradicted Trump who said he believes North Korean leader knew nothing about treatment of US student

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A senior Republican has contradicted Donald Trump about whether Kim Jong-un is to blame for the death of an American citizen, saying: “North Korea murdered Otto [Warmbier] … I think Kim knew what happened, which was wrong.”

Vietnam summit: North Korea and US offer differing reasons for failure of talks Read more

The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, spoke on Sunday, a day after Trump, without withdrawing his support for Kim’s denial of knowledge of the incident, complained he had been put in “a horrible position”.

Warmbier, a 22-year-old student at the University of Virginia, died in June 2017, having been held in North Korea for 17 months. He was returned to his home state, Ohio, in what doctors there called a state of “unresponsive wakefulness”, having suffered a “severe neurological injury”.

In North Korea, he had initially appeared before cameras in apparent control of his actions, if in evident mental distress. Pyongyang denies he was tortured.

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Trump met Kim this week, in Vietnam at their second summit regarding North Korea’s nuclear weapons. The meeting ended with no significant diplomatic gain for the US but a concession to Pyongyang: the cancellation of major US military exercises with South Korea.

In Hanoi, Trump told reporters the North Korean dictator told him “he didn’t know about” how Warmbier was treated.

“I will take him at his word,” he said. “I don’t think the top leadership knew about it.”

The president’s remark was similar to expressions of trust in the word of autocratic leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman. As such they provoked a storm of criticism, including a stern statement from Warmbier’s parents.

“We have been respectful during this summit process,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier said. “Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”

Trump subsequently tweeted: “Of course I hold North Korea responsible... for Otto’s mistreatment and death. Most important, Otto Warmbier will not have died in vain.”

Then, in a rambling, two-hour speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington on Saturday, during which he sought to portray his Vietnam visit as a success, he said: “We got our great people back. That includes our beautiful, beautiful Otto. Otto Warmbier, whose parents I’ve gotten to know, who’s incredible.

“And I’m in such a horrible position, because in one way I have to negotiate, and the other way I love Mr and Mrs Warmbier. And I love Otto. And it’s a very, very delicate balance. He was a special young man and to see what happened was so bad.”

Trump: I took Kim at his word over Otto Warmbier's torture Read more

On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, McCarthy contradicted the president when he flatly said: “North Korea murdered Otto [Warmbier]. I think Kim had all authority to do that. I think Kim knew what happened, which was wrong.”

Referring to sanctions passed by Congress in 2017, the California representative added: “That’s why when we passed sanctions, we named [the bill] after Otto Warmbier. That’s why the president kept those sanctions in place. The sanctions the president did not lift on North Korea were named after Otto. And I think the president clarified that.”

Host George Stephanopoulos pointed out that Trump has said he holds North Korea responsible for Warmbier’s death, not Kim.

“I think Kim knew,” McCarthy repeated.

Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, played a straighter bat. Repeatedly claiming the Hanoi summit was a success, the former United Nations ambassador told CNN’s State of the Union: “The president takes [Kim] at his word. My opinion doesn’t matter. I am his national security adviser. I am not the national security decision-maker. That’s his view.”

Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House intelligence committee, told CBS’s Face the Nation the summit “was a spectacular failure made all the worse by the president’s obsequious comments when it came to the murder of an American citizen, Otto Warmbier”.

Bolton told the same show Trump had “been very clear he viewed what happened to Otto Warmbier as barbaric and unacceptable”, and repeated what some might call an optimistic demand: that the secretive totalitarian state should provide “a full description of what happened”.

To CNN host Jake Tapper’s contention that most North Korean experts would agree nothing could have happened to Warmbier without Kim knowing about it, Bolton said: “Good for them.”