NKorea dismisses Canada’s calls for release of pastor

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL

North Korea sent an indignant message to Canada Tuesday, following the latter’s appeal against the authoritarian state’s recent punishment of a pastor from Ontario.

Hyeon Soo Lim, 60, was sentenced to a life of hard labor by the North’s Supreme Court last week, having been captured at the start of the year while carrying out missionary work.

Pyongyang claimed that the South Korean-born Canadian citizen had plotted to overthrow North Korea’s leadership.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded by expressing his concern, while also referring to the “well known” issues of the North’s governance and judicial system.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson hit back Tuesday via the state-run KCNA news agency, insisting that Lim’s sentence was “fair” and cautioning that there was demand among the reclusive nation’s people for an even heavier punishment -- North Korea is notorious for its public executions.

There was also an implicit threat for the Canadian government to digest, as the ministry spokesperson warned of a severe retaliation against “whoever harbors hostile feelings toward the ideology and social system of the country.”

The United States was able to secure the release of its citizen Kenneth Bae last year despite such defiant statements out of Pyongyang -- the American missionary had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in 2013.

Like Bae, Lim is believed to be suffering from health problems according to the Light Korean Presbyterian Church, based near Toronto.

The pastor has apparently made around 100 humanitarian trips to North Korea over the last couple of decades, but Pyongyang regularly clamps down on religious activities outside the state’s control.