North Korea shows captive Canadian pastor confessing before congregation

SEOUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) - North Korea released video footage
on Monday of a Canadian pastor confessing before a Pyongyang
church congregation that he had committed crimes against the
state.
Hyeon Soo Lim, of the 3,000-member Light Korean Presbyterian
Church in Toronto, travelled to North Korea in January this year
on a routine humanitarian visit. He has been detained since
February.
Dressed in a dark blue suit and tie and speaking to a sparse
congregation which included some foreign residents of Pyongyang,
South Korean-born Lim appeared to be reading from a script.
"The worst crime I committed was to rashly defame and insult
the highest dignity and the system of the republic," Hyeon told
a congregation at Pyongyang's Pongsu Church, according to video
released by the semi-official Uriminzokkiri propaganda website.
Pongsu Church is one of four state-operated churches in the
capital of a country that espouses freedom of religion but
effectively bans it.
The service took place on Aug. 2, Uriminzokkiri said.
Last week, the 60-year-old appeared before media in
Pyongyang where he also confessed to crimes aimed at
overthrowing the state, the North's official news agency said.
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KCNA quoted Lim as telling a news conference he had
travelled to North Korea in the guise of humanitarian work and
gathered information that he used in sermons outside the country
in a bid to drive the regime to a collapse "with the love of
God."
His purpose was to "overturn its social system by taking
advantage of the hostile policy against it sought by the South
Korean authorities and set up a base for building a religious
state," KCNA quoted him as saying.
Lim has visited North Korea more than 100 times since 1997
and has helped establish an orphanage and a nursing home there,
according to the church. He has lived in Canada since 1986 and
is a Canadian citizen.
Canada suspended diplomatic relations with Pyongyang in
2010. Both North Korea and neighbouring China have clamped down
on Christian groups over the past year, and several American
Christians have been detained by North Korea.
North and South Korea are still technically at war after
their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty. The
reclusive North, which regularly threatens to destroy the United
States in a sea of flames, has also been slapped with heavy
Western sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes.