N Korea Sentences Canadian Pastor To Hard Labour

North Korea has sentenced a Canadian pastor to hard labour for life for subversion, according to state media.

South Korean-born Hyeon Soo Lim, from a Toronto church, is also reported to have confessed to helping people escape from the authoritarian communist country.

The North's official news agency KCNA said during his trial Mr Lim admitted to "not only viciously defaming the highest dignity of Korea and its system but also possessing the wicked intention of trying to topple the Republic by staging an anti-state conspiracy".

North Korea's Supreme Court claimed Mr Lim, the head pastor of one of Canada's largest churches, had attempted to overthrow the regime and undermine its social system with "religious activities" for the past 18 years, reported China's official Xinhua news agency.

The prosecution had sought the death penalty but the defence had requested leniency despite the gravity of his crimes "so that he can witness for himself the reality of the nation of the Sun as it grows in power and prosperity," said KCNA.
The court also alleged the defendant had fabricated anti-North Korean propaganda as part of a US and South Korean-led "human rights racket" against the country.
The 60-year-old Canadian was arrested by the authorities in January after travelling to North Korea from China.

His church said he had visited the state many times to work with orphanages and nursing homes.
It said back in March that he had "a very serious health problem" and required prescription medicine.
Mr Lim's sentence was announced days after high-level talks between the two Koreas aimed at improving cross-border ties broke up.

Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North's constitution, it does not exist in practice and foreign missionaries arrested in North Korea can be given long sentences or used by Pyongyang as a way of securing concessions from their governments.

US citizen Kenneth Bae, who was born in South Korea, was freed in November last year after being sentenced two years earlier to 15 years' hard labour.
He had been convicted of plotting to overthrow the North Korean regime.