Dennis Rodman was a useful idiot for the N. Koreans.

via Reuters.

An American university student held prisoner in North Korea for 17 months died at a Cincinnati hospital on Monday, just days after he was released from captivity in a coma, his family said.

Otto Warmbier, 22, who was arrested in North Korea while visiting as a tourist, had been described by doctors caring for him last week as having extensive brain damage that left him in a state of "unresponsive wakefulness."

"Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today," the family said in a statement after Warmbier's death at 2:20 p.m. EDT (1820 GMT).

His family has said that Warmbier lapsed into a coma in March 2016, shortly after he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea.

Physicians at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he died, said last Thursday that Warmbier showed no sign of understanding language or awareness of his surroundings, and had made no "purposeful movements or behaviors," though he was breathing on his own.

There was no immediate word from Warmbier's family on the cause of his death.

Full disclosure.  I am not a Dennis Rodman fan.

Having said that it doesn't cloud my take on this situation.  This visit to N. Korea came out of nowhere.  The idea floated that he could possibly get a hostage released was preposterous on its face and to see it happen raised all kinds of alarm bells.

Now just days after the young guy's release we find out he dies after being tortured (my belief...no evidence...no statement from intel agencies) by the N. Koreans.

Rodman was a useful idiot for the N. Koreans.

In a just world he would be sanctioned by the US govt, forbidden from traveling to N. Korea in the future and a govt spokesman should make the rounds explaining on TV news shows how the N. Koreans used him to get the kid back home before he died in an attempt to cover their barbarity.

It won't happen but it should.