Dennis Rodman claims HE was responsible for Otto Warmbier’s release after student was ‘brutalised’ in North Korean prison camp
ODDBALL basketball legend Dennis Rodman has claimed credit for North Korea's decision to release tragic US student Otto Warmbier last week.
The former NBA star — who has a bizarre friendship with tyrant Kim Jong-un — said his influence with the regime helped bring Otto back to his family days before he died.
Rodman flew into North Korea for his latest visit on June 13, the same day Otto was released after 17 months in jail.
And he : "There's no doubt I was the one who was supposed to go over there and get him out."
His agent Chris Volo said he personally lobbied the Pyongyang government pleading for Otto's release, even though he did not know the student was in a coma.
Volo said: "I asked on behalf of Dennis for his release three times.
"I know being there had something to do with it. Because when I was organising the trip, and I meet with the delegates here, you know, I addressed Otto Warmbier.
"And I said to them we would need some kind of good faith if we're ever going to do some type of future sports relations.
"I asked three times before we went on behalf of Dennis for his release. They said they understood."
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Otto was arrested in January last year accused of stealing a propaganda poster and was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour in one of Kim's brutal prison camps.
He suffered a devastating brain injury soon after his sentencing - but the regime did not reveal he was in a coma until it announced they would let him go home last week.
He died in hospital in the US days later, allowing his family time to say goodbye.
Dad Fred says Otto was "terrorised and brutalised" by his captors and held in a coma for a more than a year.
Today the US Department of State denied the wacky sportsman had anything to do with the student's release.
Fred Warmbier also said in a statement: "Dennis Rodman had nothing to do with Otto returning to the United States."
Rodman told ABC he did not meet Kim on his brief visit last week but they have met several times before and he has been photographed laughing and chatting with the bloodthirsty dictator.
He claimed Kim is misunderstood, adding: "I think people don't see him as a friendly guy.
"We sing karaoke. It's all fun. Ride horses, everything.
"People don't see the good side about that country. It's like going to Asia, Turkey, or any place like that. It's pretty much just like that.
"You know, you're going to see some poverty. You're going to see some people that's not doing too well."
Today North Korea claimed it was the "biggest victim" in Otto's death.
The regime's official KCNA agency denied the student was cruelly treated or tortured and accused the United States and South Korea of a smear campaign that insulted what it called its "humanitarian" treatment of him.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "Although we had no reason at all to show mercy to such a criminal of the enemy state, we provided him with medical treatments and care with all sincerity on humanitarian basis until his return to the US, considering that his health got worse.
"The fact that Warmbier died suddenly in less than a week just after his return to the US in his normal state of health indicators is a mystery to us as well.
"To make it clear, we are the biggest victim of this incident and there would be no more foolish judgment than to think we do not know how to calculate gains and losses.
"The smear campaign staged in the US compels us to make firm determination that humanitarianism and benevolence for the enemy are a taboo and we should further sharpen the blade of law."
Three Americans remain in custody in North Korea. The US government accuses North Korea of using detainees as political pawns.
North Korea accuses Washington and Seoul of sending spies to overthrow its government.
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