North Korea’s state-run news outlet the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday that U.S. citizen Otto Warmbier was released for “humanitarian” reasons.

The report, which came out almost two days after the U.S. State Department announced it had secured the 22-year-old’s release “at the direction of the President,” is North Korea’s first public statement on the case.

“U.S. citizen Otto Frederick Warmbier, who had been in hard labor, was sent back home on June 13, 2017 on humanitarian grounds according to the adjudication made on the same day by the Central Court of the DPRK,” the KCNA report,