Hyeon Soo Lim

Hyeon Soo Lim (; born February 16, 1955) is a Canadian pastor of the Big Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Mississauga. He is a South Korean-born Canadian citizen. He was operating humanitarian efforts in North Korea providing tens of millions of dollars' worth of aid before disappearing in February 2015. The DPRK had arrested him and in December 2015, Lim was sentenced to life with hard labour for crimes against the North Korean regime.

In August 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a Canadian international government delegation to Pyongyang to discuss the case. Lim was released from detention on August 9, 2017, and arrived in Canada on August 12, 2017.

Early life Lim was born in South Korea and grew up in Seoul. The family attended a devout Christian church that produced numerous pastors and missionaries.

Light Korean Presbyterian Church Lim joined He also runs a second young person-oriented church in downtown Toronto. While his church blocked efforts to talk to people working with Lim for his safety, The Globe and Mail found evidence of extensive efforts to start businesses, import and export food, glasses, fuel, and other goods, feed thousands of people, and even buy the largest hotel in North Korea. The for-profit business interests, in the magnitude of tens of millions of dollars, were used to fund humanitarian efforts. Lim maintained high-level contacts in North Korea and Canada, including with the Prime Minister's office.

North Korean imprisonment Lim travelled to North Korea on January 31, 2015, crossing the land border with China to visit the northeastern city of Rajin, and then disappeared. Much later it was determined he was arrested in February. In a video released by a North Korean propaganda website in August, Hyeon appeared to read from a script to a nearly empty state-operated Pongsu Church in Pyongyang. "The worst crime I committed was to rashly defame and insult the highest dignity and the system of the republic." Former prisoners in North Korea report being coerced into similar confessions.

On December 16, 2015, Lim was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour for crimes against the state of North Korea.

He was released on August 9, 2017, after a Canadian delegation visited Pyongyang and arrived back in Canada on August 12, 2017.