US student tourist jailed for 15 years in North Korea for stealing a propaganda banner

            Otto Warmbier being led by North Korean police           (C)Reuters

North Korea's highest court sentenced an American tourist to 15 years in prison with hard labour for subversion on Wednesday, weeks after authorities presented him to media and he tearfully confessed that he had tried to steal a propaganda banner from a restricted area of his hotel. 21-year-old Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia undergraduate, was convicted and sentenced in a one-hour trial in North Korea's Supreme Court.
Warmbier had entered North Korea as part of a New Year tour organized by Young Pioneer Tours, a China-based travel agency. He was arrested when the group was set to return to Beijing on January 2. North Korea media delivered reports of a comprehensive confession by Warmbier who reportedly said he'd taken the banner as "a trophy" for a member of the Friendship United Methodist Church in his hometown of Wyoming, Ohio. The church member - a friend of Warmbier's mother - had reportedly promised him a used car worth around $10,000 if he succeeded and a payment of $200,000 to his family if he was detained, the media reports said.
"Since my family is suffering from very severe financial difficulties, I started to consider this as my only golden opportunity to earn money," Warmbier was quoted as saying.
'The worst mistake of my life'
Detained foreigners are often required to make a public, officially-scripted acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Warmbier was photographed visibly distraught and apologizing last month in front of journalists and diplomats in Pyongyang. His detention comes at a sensitive time. The United States is leading efforts to ramp up international sanctions on North Korea as Pyongyang threatens to further test its nuclear arsenal and long-range rockets.
Warmbier is one of three North Americans detained in North Korea. A 60-year-old Canadian pastor was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor last month on sedition charges.