North Korea's Supreme Court
sentenced a Canadian pastor to life in prison with hard labor on Wednesday 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 has been in detention since February.
Lim entered and left the court in
handcuffs flanked by two public security officers in uniform. The handcuffs
were removed in court during the trial. He kept his head bowed most of the time
and answered questions in a subdued tone.
The crimes he was charged with
included harming the dignity of the supreme leadership, trying to use religion
to destroy the North Korean system, disseminating negative propaganda about the
North to the overseas Koreans, and helping U.S. and South Korean authorities
lure and abduct North Korean citizens, along with aiding their programs to
assist defectors from the North.
Lim's lawyer asked the court to take
into account the fact that Lim is a fellow Korean and that he had frankly
confessed to everything the prosecution had brought up. Lim pleaded to be given
a chance and said if the court gave him one he would not do anything bad again.
In July, Lim appeared at a news
conference organized by North Korean authorities in Pyongyang and admitted to
plotting to overthrow the North Korean state. Other foreigners detained in
North Korea and then released have said they were coerced into making similar
statements and confessing guilt during their detention.
Lim's relatives and colleagues have
said he traveled on Jan. 31 on 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 arrest and severe punishment.
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