Otto Frederick Warmbier. The Korea Times file

By Lee Min-young

The parents of Otto Warmbier, who died in a coma after being sent home from a North Korean labor prison, have demanded about $1.1 billion in compensation from Pyongyang.

According to a Voice of America (VOA) report on Tuesday, the legal team for the Warmbiers has submitted a document to a court that specified the amount they were going to claim against the North Korean regime for their son's death. The calculation was based on a similar captivity case that led to the death of a missionary.

The largest portion was made up of punitive damages ― $1.05 billion ― with $350 million each for Warmbier and his parents, Cindy and Fred.

They also demanded compensation for financial losses and another $10 million for the psychological pain Warmbier had to go through and $15 million for each of his parents, which is based on the pain inflicted on the Warmbiers whenever they saw their son on North Korean television and when they had to make the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support.

The Warmbiers will attend their first hearing in the Washington, D.C., Federal Court on Dec. 19. They filed the suit in April, accusing the North of violating international law by killing their son.

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 also testify.

North Korea has not taken any legal steps in response to the lawsuit and also did not show up for the pre-trial hearing on Dec. 14.

Warmbier, 22, a Virginia University student from Ohio, was held in custody in North Korea after attempting to take home a propaganda poster from his hotel in 2016. He had been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

He was released in a coma in June 2017 after 17 months. He died in a Cincinnati hospital six days after his return.