Diplomatic meeting in North Korea renews hope for release of Hyeon Soo Lim, who has been in detention at a hard-labour camp since 2015.
Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim has been in North Korean detention since January 2015.
That was 900 days ago. And counting.
The leader of Mississauga’s Light Presbyterian Church went missing during a humanitarian mission in a northern region where Lim was so well-known for his charity work, he’ d been granted a frequent access visa.
Weeks later, North Korean authorities confirmed they’ d arrested Lim, now 62, ostensibly for plotting to overthrow Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian regime. The pastor was sentenced to life in a hard-labour camp where he told an American journalist, given unique access to Lim, that he digs holes eight hours a day, six days a week.
Now, there is renewed — but cautious — hope for Lim’s release.
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Last Friday, North Korean officials arranged a meeting “in the humanitarian spirit” between the imprisoned Canadian and a Swedish Embassy diplomat in Pyongyang, according to state media outlet Korean Central News Agency.
The timing of the July 14 meeting has also commanded attention: It came four weeks after American university student Otto Warmbier was released from a North Korean prison, in a coma, and died just days after arriving home.
“Any type of contact is always good, ” said Toronto lawyer Jack Kim, a special adviser at HanVoice, the largest Canadian organization advocating on behalf of North Korean human rights and refugees.
“It means the North Koreans haven’ t forgotten about Rev. Lim and are at least continuing the dialogue, even if it’s on humanitarian grounds.”
Details surrounding Lim’s disappearance more than two years ago have been scant. The Star has since learned the pastor vanished the same day he entered North Korea after two men approached him and invited him to the capital, Pyongyang.
Kim described the North Korean regime as “one of the most opaque countries in the world” and noted last week’s meeting did not include an official from Global Affairs Canada, the ministry tasked with securing Lim’s release.
“The fact that it was not someone from Global Affairs, but the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, to a certain degree, tempers my enthusiasm about this, ” said Kim, who has met Lim.
“I think you could look at this (meeting) with guarded, perhaps minimal, optimism.”
North Korean officials have permitted two prior Canadian consular visits, the last one in December 2016.
Lim has also met previously with Swedish Ambassador Torkel Stiernlöf, who is based in Pyongyang. It’s unknown if Stiernlöf was in the Friday meeting; the Swedish Embassy did not respond to an email from the Star. Canada does not have a diplomatic presence in North Korea and the Swedish Embassy acts as Canada’s protecting power.
Canadian Senator Yonah Martin, deputy leader of the opposition in the Senate, is a friend of Lim’s. She said the North Korean gesture in arranging the meeting provides an opening for Canada to engage the regime more urgently “because there is great and growing concern about Rev. Lim’s health.”
Lim has high blood pressure and requires medication. The North Koreans have allowed medication to be sent to him.
“Rev. Lim has lost a considerable amount of weight — between 60 to 80 pounds — and he isn’ t well, ” Martin said from her Burnaby, B. C., home.
“I hope this is an opportunity for Canada to follow up in whatever way will bring Rev. Lim home. I don’ t want to say ‘now or never,’ but I hope something can come out of this, ” she continued.
The North Korean news story also invited the Canadian government to resolve Lim’s case.
Lim asked the unnamed Swedish diplomat “to convey his request to the Canadian government for making active efforts to settle his issue, ” according to an English language report citing the original article.
