Otto Warmbier, pictured in Pyongyang, died after being released from North Korea in a coma in June 2017. Korea Times file

By Lee Min-young

The parents of Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student who died after he was reportedly mistreated in a North Korean labor camp, will be in court next month as the trial of their lawsuit against the North Korean regime begins.

According to a Voice of America (VOA) report on Tuesday, the U.S. federal court notified the Warmbiers that the first hearing will be held on Dec. 19. The Warmbiers filed the suit in April, accusing the North of violating international law by killing their son.

The Warmbiers, Lee Sung-yoon, assistant professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and David Hawk, a member of the National Committee on North Korea, will testify at the trial.

North Korea has denied accusations that torture caused Otto Warmbier's death. The VOA said North Korea is yet to take official steps in response to the lawsuit.

Warmbier, 22, a Virginia University student from Ohio, was detained in North Korea on subversion charges after North Korean security forces caught him taking a propaganda poster from his hotel in 2016. He was sentenced to 15 years' hard labor.

North Korea released him in June 2017, but he was in a coma. His body had signs of trauma and torture and he died in hospital six days after his release.