N Korea says Trump exploiting student's death, rejects torture claims

North Korea has accused US President Donald Trump of exploiting death of Otto Warmbier, an American student who was imprisoned in the Asian country for more than a year over espionage charges, denying US claims that Warmbier was tortured while in North Korea's jail.

In a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea's Foreign Ministry called the US president an "old lunatic" for alleging that the American student had been tortured while in Pyongyang's custody.

The ministry also accused the US of "luring and pushing" the 22-year-old student into breaking North Korea’s laws.

"Trump and his clique, for their anti-DPRK propaganda, are again exploiting the death of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who had been under reform through labor for the criminal act he committed against the DPRK (official name of North Korea) and died after returning to the US," it said.

Elsewhere in the statement, the ministry also accused "an anti-DPRK conspiracy organization in the US" of sending Warmbier to the country on a criminal mission.

"The fact that the old lunatic Trump and his riff-raff slandered the sacred dignity of our supreme leadership, using bogus data full of falsehood and fabrications, only serves to redouble the surging hatred of our army and people towards the US and their will to retaliate thousand-fold," it noted.

North Korea has stressed that the University of Virginia student had suffered no torture during his detention.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman also said on Thursday that Pyongyang had provided medical care to Warmbier despite his "hostile acts" against the country, adding that the claims of torture were groundless slander against Pyongyang.

Warmbier was visiting North Korea as a tourist in January 2016 when he was arrested and imprisoned by the country's authorities.

He spent 17 months in a North Korean jail over spying charges and was released to his family back in the US after falling into a coma due to a “severe neurological injury.” He died on June 19.

A US medical examiner earlier said that Warmbier carried no obvious signs of torture.

"We don't know what happened to him. That's the bottom line," Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said, adding, "We're never going to know, unless the people who were there come forward and say, 'This is what happened to Otto'."

The deceased student’s parents and the US president, however, have recently accused North Korean government of torturing Warmbier.

Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday that "Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea."

PressTV-‘American was tortured beyond belief by N Korea’

US President Trump has accused North Korea of abusing an American “student” who had been imprisoned in the Asian country for over a year over espionage charges.

Tensions have flared between the US and North Korea in recent weeks following Pyongyang's sixth nuclear test that escalated war of words between North Koran officials and Trump.

North Korea has said that recent remarks by Trump at the UN General Assembly constituted a declaration of war against Pyongyang. Trump said in his address to the 72nd annual meeting of the General Assembly that the US would “totally destroy” North Korea if necessary.

North Korea is under growing international pressure over its missile and military nuclear programs and has been subjected to an array of sanctions by the United Nations. However, Pyongyang says it needs to continue and develop the programs as a deterrent against hostility by the US and its regional allies, including Japan and South Korea.

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