US student released by North Korea is in coma

Otto Warmbier had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labour after he confessed to stealing a propaganda banner during a visit to North Korea in January last year.

North Korea has released a 22-year old American student jailed 17 months ago.

Otto Warmbier had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labour after he confessed to stealing a propaganda banner during a visit to North Korea in January last year.

He was freed a week after a high-level US diplomatic mission but his parents learned their son has been in coma since his jail term began.

Al Jazeera’s Daniel Lak reports from Cincinnati.