Canadian delegation sent to North Korea to discuss imprisoned pastor
A delegation from the Canadian government is in Pyongyang, North Korea, to discuss the case of imprisoned Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed Tuesday.
Lim, a pastor with the Light Korean Presbyterian Church of Mississauga, Ont., was sentenced in December 2015 by a North Korean court to life in prison at hard labour for what it called crimes against the state.
Lim 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 overseas Koreans and helping American and South Korean authorities lure and abduct North Korean citizens, along with aiding their programs to assist defectors from the North.
The Canadian delegation — which is led by Daniel Jean, the national security adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — is in the North Korean capital as tensions continue to rise between the United States and the isolated nation, which announced Tuesday it developed the ability to fit a small nuclear warhead on top of a long-range missile.