N. Korea sentences pastor to life in jail
PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea’s Supreme Court sentenced a Canadian pastor to life in prison with hard labor today for what it called crimes against the state.
Hyeon Soo Lim, who pastors the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, was given the sentence after a 90-minute trial. He had been in detention since February.
The crimes he was charged with included harming the dignity of the supreme leadership and trying to use religion to destroy the North Korean system.
State prosecutors sought the death penalty.
Lim’s relatives and colleagues have said he traveled on Jan. 31 as part of a regular humanitarian mission to North Korea where he supports a nursing home, a nursery and an orphanage. They said Lim, who is in his early 60s, has made more than 100 trips to North Korea since 1997 and that his trips were about helping people and were not political.
North Korea has very strict rules against any missionary or religious activities that it sees as threatening the supremacy of its ruling regime. Merely leaving a Bible in a public place can lead to an arrest.
