The DPRK Managing Director of Young Pioneer Tours (YPT), the company which brought the now-released Otto Warmbier into North Korea, has said that the group still believes the country is safe as long as precautions are taken, speaking to NK News over email on Friday.

In the group's first extended statement since Warmbier was released, Troy Collings, whose company brought Otto Warmbier into the DPRK in January last year, said YPT were "obviously extremely upset" by the situation of the 22-year-old, who doctors say suffered severe brain damage while in captivity in the North.