Canadian envoy arrives in NORTH KOREA: Trudeau sends top ambassador to Pyongyang?...What!
JUSTIN Trudeau has sent a top Canadian envoy on a mission to North Korea as Kim Jong-un continues to ramp up tensions with the West.
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A special envoy for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touched down in the secretive state today.
Daniel Jean, national security advisor to Mr Trudeau, arrived with his entourage, North Korea’s state-run news agency, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), confirmed.
He landed in Pyongyang as the Canadian government tries to engineer the release of a pastor jailed for life for crimes against Kim Jong-un's regime.
The rare meeting is widely thought to focus on the release of Korean-Canadian pastor Lim Hyeon-soo.
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Originally born in South Korea, Mr Lim, from the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, was sentenced to life behind bars with hard labour by a North Korean court for crimes against the state.
Mr Lim, handed the sentence in 2015, regularly visited the reclusive state, making more than 100 trips since the late 1990s.
He focused on helping the people of the impoverished nation, supporting an orphanage, a nursing home and a nursery.
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But he was detained in February, after going missing when he crossed into North Korea in January 2015.
Mr Lim, said to be in his early 60s, later appeared a propaganda video in December that year in the hands of the North Koreans.
An apparently engineered self confession saw him read from a script while addressing the state-operated Pongsu Church in Pyongyang.
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Admitting his so-called crimes, he said: “The worst crime I committed was to rashly defame and insult the highest dignity and the system of the republic.”
North Korea's highest court sentenced Mr Lim to life in prison for his alleged "subversive plots" against the regime.
The meeting with the Canadian envoy is thought to be an attempt to engineer his release.
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Since the high-profile death of US detainee Otto Warmbier, pressure has been heaped on governments to try and secure the release of their citizens held under the oppressive regime.
Mr Warmer was flown home to the US in a coma in June this year, after spending 17-months in detention.
Tragically the 22-year-old never regained consciousness and died six days after returning to the US.
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Despite the American's tragic fate, there has been positive signs regarding the incarceration of Mr Lim.
In March this year he meet with Swedish Ambassador Torkel Stiernlof, representing Canada, and was allowed a phone call home.
Mr Stiernlof said: “He was escorted in and out of the room without handcuffs by uniformed guards.
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“We discussed his health and other things, of course, but I refrain from commenting on these matters.”
Mr Lim’s family later issued a statement, saying: “We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Swedish Ambassador Torkel Stiernlof for representing the Canadian government in Pyongyang and helping make this meaningful phone call happen.
“We take this as an encouraging sign that diplomatic efforts are bearing fruit and we hope to see Reverend Lim return home as soon as possible.”
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The Swedish embassy in Pyongyang deals with Canadian consular affairs as North Korea and Canada do not have diplomatic relations.
Despite the small signs of progress, the North Korean regime is widely seen as using its foreign prisoners as political bargaining chips.
While it is not clear what conditions Mr Lim is being held in, foreigners are thought to be separated from the domestic prison population.
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