Release International is calling for the release of a Canadian pastor who has been jailed for life with hard labour in North Korea.
Rev Hyeon Soo Lim has worked for decades to provide humanitarian aid
to North Korea. He was sentenced on Wednesday (Dec 16) on charges of
'political terrorism'.
The 60-year-old was jailed after a
court hearing that lasted just 90 minutes, during which he was denied
independent legal representation.
Rev Lim is senior pastor
of the 3,000-member Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto. He
has visited North Korea 100 times in the past 20 years to support a
nursing home, nursery and orphanage. Release has been highlighting his
case as a prisoner of faith since his detention in February.
In common with other church workers who have been arrested, Rev Lim
was required to make a lengthy public statement confessing to 'heinous
crimes'.
'It was clear he was made to read from a
prepared statement,' says Release International Chief Executive Paul
Robinson. 'Who knows what he had had been made to endure beforehand?
This was another show trial, and Rev Lim should be released.'
In February 2014, South Korean Baptist Kim Jong Uk was made to
read out an almost identical statement. Like Rev Lim, he was made to
confess to attempting to turn North Korea into a religious country and
to trying to destroy its political system.
The Supreme
Court found Kim Jong Uk guilty of spying and attempting to set up an
underground church. He too was sentenced to a lifetime of hard
labour.
Last year, Release gave warning of a pending
clampdown on Christian workers in North Korea. This followed a damning
UN report on human rights abuses in the hermit kingdom.
Eric Foley of VOM Korea, a Release partner, warned at the time that
Christian missionaries could be targeted as scapegoats. 'We are now
seeing that happen before our eyes,' says Paul Robinson of Release.
In March 2015, a Presbyterian pastor and a South Korean businessman
were sentenced to life imprisonment on spying charges.
Rev Kim
Kuk-gi, 61, and Choe Chun-gil, 56, were accused of being 'heinous
terrorists' who were spying for South Korea. Pastor Kim was also
charged with spreading religious propaganda from an underground church
in Dandong.
Then in May, North Korea arrested an American tourist
for leaving a Bible in his hotel room. Jeffrey Fowle was released
after diplomatic intervention from Sweden.
Some others have also
been set free after back-channel discussions. Kenneth Bae, an American
evangelical, was released in November. He had also been found guilty
of trying to bring down the government by promoting religious
activities.
After last year's damning UN human rights
report, North Korea accused Christian missionaries of subversion,
terrorism and even human trafficking. 'North Korea is choosing to
blame Christian missionaries for its human rights problems and
internal difficulties,' said Eric Foley.
These spying and
trafficking claims against church workers are dismissed by Paul
Robinson of Release: 'Instead of addressing its human rights abuses,
North Korea is throwing the book at Christians who are providing
relief aid.
'In a country where a form of emperor worship
is mandatory, the authorities regard Christianity as a threat to the
state, and are accusing Christians of spying.'
According
to the US State Department, some 200,000 North Koreans are being held
in labour camps, many for offences related to religion. Up to 30,000
Christians are behind bars, believes Release partner VOM Korea.
Both the UK and the US have called on Pyongyang to close its
prison camps. But Pyongyang continues to deny their existence.