Talk:Otto Warmbier

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Otto Warmbier article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3: 30 days

This article was nominated for deletion on 16 March 2016. The result of the discussion was keep.

While the biographies of living persons policy does not apply directly to the subject of this article, it may contain material that relates to living persons, such as friends and family of persons no longer living, or living persons involved in the subject matter. Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons must be removed immediately. If such material is re-inserted repeatedly, or if there are other concerns related to this policy, please see this noticeboard.

Biography

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography

Korea Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Korea, a collaborative effort to build and improve articles related to Korea. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how use this banner, please refer to the documentation.KoreaWikipedia:WikiProject KoreaTemplate:WikiProject KoreaKorea-related
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject North Korea.

United States: Ohio / Cincinnati / 50,000 Challenge Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	Ohio portal This article is supported by WikiProject Ohio.
	Ohio portal This article is supported by WikiProject Cincinnati.
	This article was created or improved during this WikiProject's 50,000 Challenge, which started on November 1, 2016, and is ongoing. You can help!

Virginia: Albemarle County / University of Virginia Low‑importance

	Virginia portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Virginia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of Virginia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.VirginiaWikipedia:WikiProject VirginiaTemplate:WikiProject VirginiaVirginia
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Albemarle County, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.
	This article is supported by WikiProject University of Virginia.

Travel and Tourism Mid‑importance

	Society portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Travel and Tourism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of travel and tourism related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Travel and TourismWikipedia:WikiProject Travel and TourismTemplate:WikiProject Travel and TourismTourism
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

A news item involving Otto Warmbier was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 20 June 2017.

Wikipedia

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report 2 times. The weeks in which this happened:

June 11 to 17, 2017 (12th)
June 18 to 24, 2017 (1st)

Irony

It's not ironic that he never saw Otto after saying "that's the last we'll see of him". It's fitting Qwerty21212121 (talk) 10:04, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Qwerty21212121 Unfortunately, it's within a quote, so we can't alter it. -- Zanimum (talk) 04:23, 2 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Incomplete Sentence

A sentence in the "Early Life" section reads, "He was a member of the Theta Chi fraternity and also." Chocohall (talk) 22:02, 5 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have repaired the damage. Muzilon (talk) 22:14, 5 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Trump Got Him Out

You neglected to mention that Trump got him released, along with other political prisoners. Also, Trump got over 50 MIA's remains returned to the US. 2600:1700:F180:FFD0:780C:EFC2:4019:E84F (talk) 12:22, 23 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Did you actually read the Release section? "Tillerson also announced that the State Department had secured Warmbier's release at the direction of President Donald Trump, and the State Department would continue discussing three other detained Americans with North Korea." The subsequent release of those three Korean-Americans is mentioned in an endnote. And Wikipedia already has a separate article about the MIA remains. —Muzilon (talk) 13:30, 23 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Asian Boss

I queried whether Asian Boss is a reliable source. This is the result. Jack Upland (talk) 03:44, 27 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The interview with the North Korean defector isn't exactly "anonymous" as someone else suggested in that WP:RSN discussion - the YouTube video identifies him as "Chul-eun Lee" (whether that's his real name is another story). The defector's story of Warmbier being waterboarded (or worse) somewhat matches the allegations made by Kim Dong-chul, the Korean-American prisoner who subsequently made it back to the USA. Perhaps these allegations should be merged into a single paragraph rather than being dealt with in two separate sections of the article. Muzilon (talk) 05:35, 27 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a good idea.--Jack Upland (talk) 04:00, 6 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Done. I tried to find English-language sources for Kim Dong-chul's statements about Warmbier, but couldn't locate anything. Muzilon (talk) 04:52, 6 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Second floor vs fifth floor of hotel (yet again)

@Benwetmore: please see this archived discussion. Although there was much media speculation that Warmbier may have strayed onto the staff-only fifth floor of the Yanggakdo Hotel, Warmbier's confession clearly stated that he took the poster from the second floor of the hotel.[1][2] I have updated the pertinent endnote per WP:CONFLICTING. Muzilon (talk) 19:26, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The New American, a newsletter of the John Birch Society is considered generally unreliable for factual claims - see WP:RSP. Was there any of this particular speculation in clear RSes? - David Gerard (talk) 09:04, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the BBC and Huffington Post reported the mysterious "5th floor" as speculation, while The Guardian and CTV seemed to take it as fact. Muzilon (talk) 11:16, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

perhaps typo

in the release section

there's a paragraph of this In May 2017, Fred Warmbier said the Obama administration

wasn't trump on January 20, 2017? if I'm correct MagicMagicKing (talk) 13:11, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, MagicMagicKing. You are correct that Trump was in the White House by May 2017. But when "Fred Warmbier said the Obama administration had encouraged them to keep a low profile about their son's situation", he is talking about the past. In the source, it is stated that "a new administration is giving the Warmbiers new hope", referring to the first Trump administration. So, not a typo. Sam Sailor 15:07, 21 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]