TORONTO — A senior pastor at a Canadian church has been missing in North Korea since late January, officials said Tuesday.
The Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim traveled to North Korea on Jan. 31 as part of a regular humanitarian mission in which he supports a nursing home, a nursery and an orphanage, said Lisa Pak, a spokesman for the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto. Pak said the pastor’s family and church have not heard from him since.
The trip was about helping people and was not political, Pak said. Lim, 60, has made more than 100 trips to North Korea and has always previously been in regular contact with his family and church, Pak said. He was scheduled to leave Feb. 4.
Pak said Lim, who is married with an adult child, expanded the church from just five families to 3,000 parishioners.
Toronto City Councilor Raymond Cho, who has known Lim for more than 20 years, expressed concerned that the North Korean regime may have detained him.
“The church is under real stress,” Cho said.
Nicolas Doire, a spokesman for Canada’s foreign affairs department, said consular officials are in contact with family members. Doire said there is no Canadian office in North Korea and that the “ability of Canadian officials to provide consular assistance is extremely limited.”