Canada is dismayed at the unusually harsh sentence imposed on a Canadian pastor detained by North Korea, particularly given “his age and fragile health,” the foreign affairs department said in a statement on Wednesday. A government spokeswoman said it has not been able to meet with Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim, the head pastor at one of Canada’s largest churches, since he was detained in February, “a serious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations”.
North Korea’s highest court sentenced the South Korea-born pastor to hard labour for life for subversion, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.