Otto Warmbier, the young American convicted in North Korea to 15 years hard labour in 2016 for stealing a poster with Kim Jong Un’s name on it, has been sent back home. At the time the US State Department spokesman said that the harsh sentence was imposed “for political purposes” and was a response to strengthened economic sanctions due to increased North Korean nuclear weapons testing. His parents said he had been in a coma for a year after his trial, after contracting botulism – usually a result of badly preserved food or infection entering a wound.
Born 12 December 1994 (wiki) he’s a Sun Mercury in Sagittarius; with a complicated Saturn opposition Mars square Jupiter Pluto. Sagittarius will give him a love of travel; Mars Saturn is accident-prone or associated with major frustrations, while Jupiter Pluto is supremely confident. He also has the highly-strung Uranus Neptune in Capricorn. His Mars is trine Uranus, so he’ll be impulsive as well.
His Solar Arc Pluto was in a blocking conjunction to his Sun when he was arrested on 2 Jan 2016; tr Saturn was conjunct his Sun/Jupiter and Mercury/Jupiter midpoints, which would drain his confidence; tr Neptune was just past the conjunction to his Saturn; and tr Pluto was conjunct his Solar Arc Sun. So pretty much hemmed in from several directions.
His Progressed Mars had just gone retrograde a year or so before (assuming birth date is accurate) which almost always coincides with a major event. Robert Blaschke says – the individual loses will and vitality and in some cases faces violence. It stays retrograde for many years to come.
There’s no way of knowing what lies ahead for him. Normally botulism paralysis only extends up to 8 weeks, though I can’t imagine NK hospitals in labour camps or wherever are exactly state of the art. How grim for his parents.
He was in the hands of criminals and now has long term brain injuries inflicted by them or self inflicted. If he was injured by the N Korean govt there is no excuse for the destruction of another human being esp over some pathetic poster of a dictator.
US doctors are evidently saying his wakeful-but-unresponsive state is more likely to have been because his brain was starved of oxygen from a cardiopulmonary event, which I assume means some kind of heart attack.
Delia – I’m not enamoured with NKorea or its flip-hairdoo dictator. Lest we forget WW2, many terrible deeds against humanity were performed by the allies against innocent civilians in the firebombing raids. We forget history only to repeat it…or improve on the mass killing of civilians.
“Mars square Saturn”? Nope. Rather, Mars square Jupiter, exact to the degree: a signature for overreaching, and trusting to get away with something.
Many squares — many stresses — in the solar return prior to his travel / arrest. Standing out: Mars opposition Uranus square Pluto (with Moon, Mercury). Indications of a tough year to navigate, regardless of situation and decisions.
Small but significant correction: Apparently his name is spelled with an “i” rather than an “l” — definitely a more German name that way, and his hometown Cincinnati is a very German town.
If only we all hadn’t done stupid things in our youth. Of course Warmbier should have know better. He was, after all, in North Korea. But being sentenced to 15 years in a labor camp for attempting to steal a banner from a hotel hallway is a bit much. The horrors he must have experienced–just unthinkable.
no one can accommodate NKorea. He’s a big boy and he played with fire.
Beyond tragic. Thanks, Marjorie.
Had he not pulled his prank, he’d not be in this situation.