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>> i think they're going to look at the credibility of the individual. can they use him as a propaganda tool? >> reporter: it's happened before. american soldier james dresnok defected to north korea in 1962. he and his sons, now adults who still have never left north korea, acted in north korean propaganda movies playing the evil american. do i see travis king as a new james dresnok? not really. these are different times. this is a young man who's used to being on his phone, being on his internet, probably playing video games. >> reporter: human rights monitor advises travis king's family to use the same tactics that the families of otto warmbier and other americans who were detained in north korea have used, to keep their story in the media, do not let the public forget about them. it's possible that another high-level american could be sent to north korea to get travis king out. but he says that's going to all
a college frat prank anywhere in the half-decent world. >> reporter: warmbier was sentenced to hard labor. shortly after his sentencing he went into a coma. he was hurriedy released by the north koreans after 17 months in captivity and died at age 22, just after being returned home to ohio. one of the americans held the longest, missionary kenneth bay detained for just over two years. he told cnn after he was released about his years of hard labor in a camp. >> working in the field doing farming, labor, carrying rocks and shoveling coal. >> reporter: american journalist yuna will i and laura ling were arrested in north korea in 2009. it took a high-profile mission by former president bill clinton to north korea to get them out. >> we fear that at any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp. >> reporter: analysts say if these cases are any guide, travis king could be interrogated, possibly tortured, placed in hard labor, ore --
could be quick. we just have no way to know. >> will ripley on the scene for us, thank you very much. private king isn't the first american citizen to be detained by the north korean regime. and if previous experiences are a hint of what he might be going through right now, he could be in for a rather long and harsh stay. cnn's brian todd is joining us. he's got the story. >> reporter: the accounts of americans being detained in north korea go back more than half a century. they are filled with tales of intrigue, harsh treatment, and dramatic attempts to extract them. tonight, army private travis king joins a growing list of americans who've been held by the oppressive kim regime in north korea. one of the best known among them, college student otto warmbier, arrested in 2016 while on a tour of north korea for trying to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel in pyongyang. >> he was arrested and imprisoned for something that, if true, would barely amount to
world, accusing him of being a spy. the blood of otto warmbier is in the hands of kim jong un. he knew about, it he directed it and the responsibility lies directly with kim jong un. >> that poor boy begging for himself life and being brutalized and beaten and killed by kim jong un. kim jong un was a murderer. nothing happens in that country that he doesn't order. he is a tyrant of the first order. and there is no way anybody would lay a hand on an american -- on an american in north korea unless kim jong un wasn't delivering the direct orders. and kim jong un had him beaten to death, beaten to death, put in a vegetative state to come home and die in front of his parents and this week donald trump once again embraced
>> it's hardly the first time he's put his faith in tyrants. >> and some really bad thanksgiving happened to otto, some really, really bad things but he tells me that he didn't know about it and i will take him at his word. i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> i spoke with the king, i spoke with the crown prince yesterday and he strongly said that he had nothing to do with this, this was at a lower level. >> just this week jared kushner sat down with mbs in their first known meeting since the saudi government's murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. they talked about how the saudis wooed kushner with mohammed bin
me. please. think of my family. >> i did speak about it and i don't believe that he would have allowed that to happen. it just wasn't to his advantage to allow that to happen. those prisons are rough. they're rough places and bad things happened, but i really don't believe that he was -- i don't believe he knew about it. he knew the case very well, but he knew it later. but he tells me -- he tells me that he didn't know about it and i will take him at his word. >> it's an example of the ruthless nature of this regime. we shouldn't be naive about this regime and about the way they mistreat their own people and certainly the way they mistreated otto warmbier. the mistreatment of otto warmbier is unforgivable. >> otto warmbier, they made a spectacle out of him before the
tyranny and once again basically it was -- it's always every day is donald trump's own personal munich. i mean, he appeased yet another dictator, this time for the brutalizing death of an american college boy. >> he cozied up to north korea's dictator while his son-in-law cozied up to saudi arabia and mbs. america's former ambassador to the u.n. naikki haley also weighed in, "americans know the cruelty that was placed on otto warmbier by the north korean regime -- >> hold on, also known as kim jong un. >> exactly. >> she says our hearts are with the warmbier family, we will never forget otto.
negotiations given in the future. white house press secretary sarah sanders says that president trump, quote, is aware of north korea's disagreements and would not comment further. so there was that discrepancy. but stateside, the big issue was one of the more controversial statements that president trump made during his post-summit news conference regarding the death of college student otto warmbier, who died days after returning to the u.s. in a knorr vegetative state after being imprisoned by north korea. yesterday's news conference occurred on the third anniversary of otto warmbier's blackplea while in north korean custody. >> i entirely beg you people in government of north korea for your forgiveness. please! i have made the worst mistake of my life but, please, act to save
while i was growing up. our organizes principle was small government and standing up to tyrannical religigimes acrose globe. donald trump has completely turned that on its head. >> yeah, and supporting democracy and supporting human rights. this is a very far cry from even president bush's second inaugural address where he promised to help the down trod i don't know -- trodden around the world and there was no question of horrific acts during that sum the and it was symbolized by the otto warmbier comment the p president made. if the president is prepared to take kim jong un on his word on this when there is so much intel that kim jong un must have known about it, must have ordered it, how could kim jong un not know about that? it not possible he didn't know
son-in-law goes over there to continue their dear, close relationship. this is not the republican party of our youth. hell, it's not the america that we grew up in where you have a president, a commander in chief that embraces tyrants and has utter contempt for our nato allies and people who were elected democratically. >> that's right, joe. and the president is -- one thing he does is he acts out of his own self-interests. he did not go to hanoi representing the united states of america. he went there representing himself. he thinks that he can do these deals one on one. the one thing that has just been nagging at me since we heard his comments about otto warmbier is did he ever think for a moment about his parents? he took his parents and showed them around and he used it to his own self-interest and he was out there basically telling his -- otto's parents saying