WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States signed a document agreeing to pay North Korea for the care of American Otto Warmbier but never paid the $2 million (1.5 million pounds) Pyongyang demanded, White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. Asked whether U.S. envoy Joseph Yun signed the document when he went to retrieve Warmbier, Bolton told "Fox News Sunday" in an interview: "That is what I am told, yes." Warmbier, a University of Virginia student visiting North Korea, was imprisoned in January 2016. North Korea state media said he was sentenced to 15 years hard labour for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel. The six-party format, which included Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, as well as the United States and North Korea, has been sidelined by unilateral U.S. efforts to broker a deal.

Source: The Star April 28, 2019 16:18 UTC