Hyeon Soo Lim is relishing his return to Canadian soil after enduring more than two years of imprisonment in North Korea.
While living in isolation, Lim found refuge in the Bible, meditation and prayer.
Speaking to Global News with the assistance of a translator, the South Korean-born pastor recalled his experience.
“The person I would think of was my wife.”
Lim, 62, returned to Canada in early August. He had travelled to North Korea in January 2015 on a humanitarian mission.
He was supposed to return on February 4 of that year, following a trip to Rajin, in the northeastern part of the country. His church supports a nursery, orphanage and nursing home in the region.
He had travelled to the country more than 150 times before. This trip was different.
READ MORE: Who is the Canadian pastor that was imprisoned in North Korea?
Lim was handed a life sentence of hard labour by North Korea’s supreme court in December 2015, for “crimes against the state.”
“He remembered the Bible passage that encouraged ‘Don’t worry about tomorrow,’ and he took that to heart,” explained translator Lisa Pak, spokesperson for Light Korean Presbyterian Church, where Lim is pastor.
“He discovered that his routine schedule of hard work and… disciplined schedule was almost like a monastic pattern,” Pak said.
Lim told Global News he was not familiar with the story of American student Otto Warmbier until recently.
Warmbier was imprisoned in North Korea for 17 months, before being sent home in a coma. He died days later in a Cincinnati hospital.
READ MORE: Otto Warmbier dead just days after release from North Korea
Lim is grateful for the support of Canadian officials who worked to secure his freedom. In fact, he only learned of his impending release 15 minutes before it was officially granted, he said.
Lim was looking to satisfy one particular craving once his plane hit the tarmac at home in Canada.
“Last two-and-a-half years, my nostalgia of Canada was Tim Hortons coffee and Timbits,” he said, laughing.
Despite his ordeal, Lim said returning to North Korea in the future is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.