「2757回の飯」

承前*1

Ashifa Kassam “'It's a miracle for me to be here': freed Canadian pastor speaks of ordeal in North Korean prison“ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/14/north-korea-canada-pastor-hyeon-soo-lim-pyongyang


北朝鮮の獄から釈放された韓国系カナダ人の牧師Hyeon Soo Lim氏は現地時間8月12日にカナダに帰国し、翌13日には自らが所属するトロントの教会の会衆に、北朝鮮における2年7か月に亙った拘束と強制労働について語った;


During his two years and seven months in custody, winters were spent digging holes that measured one metre wide and one metre deep. “The ground was frozen. The mud was so hard that it took two days to dig one hole,” he said. “My upper body was sweating; my fingers and toes were frostbitten.” Other times he was put to work breaking apart frozen coal at a storage facility.

Spring and summer were spent outside, toiling eight hours a day in the scorching sun. “One year of this difficult labour took a toll on my body and I was admitted to hospital for two months,” he said. He was hospitalised four times in total while in custody, he said.


He learned of his release just moments before it happened. After a Canadian delegation travelled to North Korea last week, Pyongyang announced it would release Lim for humanitarian reasons. Despite losing 51lb while in prison, his family said he was in good health.

Lim told congregants that he suspected his release was a bid by Pyongyang to lessen the escalating tensions between North Korean and Washington. “I believe [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un let me go as a gesture of goodwill in the face of so much rhetoric,” Lim said in Korean, according to a translation by Reuters.


Lim said he was indebted to his church and the many others who pushed for his release. He thanked Canadian officials and noted that, as Canada has no office in North Korea, Sweden’s embassy in Pyongyang had also played a critical role in securing his release.

A mix of faith and propaganda had helped him through the ordeal, he said. During his first year in captivity, he read more than 100 books and watched some 300 films on North Korea. “I also read the Bible in both English and Korean five times and memorised over 700 Bible verses,” he said. “There were moments of discouragement, resentment and grumbling that soon changed in courage, joy and thanksgiving.”

Speaking to his congregants in Korean, he added: “It’s a miracle for me to be here today.”