Hyeon Soo Lim: Canadian pastor held in North Korean camp ‘digs for eight hours a day’

The 60-year-old says he has now 'gotten used' to the hard labour

Hyeon Soo Lim, center being escorted to his sentencing in Pyongyang, North Korea in December (AP)

A Canadian minister serving a life imprisonment in a North Korean camp is reportedly being forced to spend eight hours a day digging holes.

Hyeon Soo Lim, who emigrated from South Korea to Canada, has been held by North Korea since February and has been serving a life sentence of hard labour since December.

Since serving his sentence, he has not seen any other prisoners.

He works eight hours a day, six days a week digging holes for apple trees in the prison orchard, but is allowed breaks, according to CNN.

“I wasn’t originally a labourer, so the labour was hard at first,” he told CNN through an interpreter.

“But now I’ve gotten used to it."

He emigrated from his country of birth, South Korea in 1986, and was a minister for one of Canada’s biggest congregations, the 3,000 member Light Korea Presbyterian Church in Toronto.

He is accused of trying to use religion to overthrow the atheist regime in North Korea.

“I admit I’ve violated this government’s authority, system and order,” he added.

In an interview with CNN at a hotel in captial city Pyongyang, the 60-year-old pastor was led in by guards, wore a grey prison uniform with the number 36 on it and had short cropped hair.

The news station reported he has no contact with the outside world and has only been able to write one letter to his family, through the help of Swedish diplomats in the capital, who offer services on behalf of the US, who do not have any diplomatic relations with North Korea.

He reportedly receives three meals a day and medical attention and prays every day that North and South Korea can one day be unified.

When CNN asked him if he wanted anything, he said he had already asked for a Bible, but was still waiting for it.

The news station also offered him the opportunity to record a message for his family.

He said: “I have realised so keenly how valuable my family is, how precious it is to me.

“Family is a precious gift from God. I would like to tell my family I love them so much."

Mr Lin’s congregation said he had visited North Korea more than 100 times since 1997, and had set up an orphanage and a nursing home in the country.

He is the only western citizen known to be currently held in North Korea.