A 62-year-old Canadian pastor held in a North Korean prison for more than 2 1/2 years said he suspected his life sentence was commuted last week to help reduce pressure on Pyongyang. Current top breaking Philippine headlines regarding the nation, world, metro manila,…
TORONTO — A 62-year-old Canadian pastor held in a North Korean prison for more than 2 1\/2 years said he suspected his life sentence was commuted last week to help reduce pressure on Pyongyang. «I believe (North Korean leader) Kim Jung Un let me go as a gesture of goodwill in the face of so much rhetoric, » Hyeon Soo Lim told a packed worship hall in a Toronto suburb on Sunday. That was his first public appearance since his release on Wednesday, during a week when Washington and Pyongyang were exchanging escalating threats of violence amid their long-running dispute over North Korea’s nuclear program. Canadian authorities have declined to discuss the negotiations that led to Lim’s release. Wearing a baggy charcoal-gray suit and speaking in his native tongue of Korean, Lim described a harsh life of labor in solitary confinement, where he was forced to dig holes in frozen ground for two winters.
