South Korea called on North Korea Sunday to free and repatriate a South Korean missionary who was sentenced to hard labor for life for allegedly spying and committing several other crimes in the North.
Pyongyang's state media said Saturday that the North's Supreme Court had handed down the sentence to Kim Jong-uk, convicting him of crimes such as "state subversion and espionage."
   The North described Kim as an agent of South Korea's state intelligence agency who infiltrated Pyongyang to carry out hostile acts against the communist nation. It also accused Kim of setting up an underground church and gathering information about Pyongyang's internal affairs.
"It is very regrettable that Pyongyang sentenced Kim to hard labor for life through a perfunctory trial," said Seoul's unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs. "We strongly call for the quick release and repatriation of Kim."
   North Korea's move is a clear violation of international standards as well as humanitarianism, the ministry said, adding Pyongyang has failed to respond to Seoul's demands for his release.
South Korea's spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, has insisted that Kim, who was arrested by the North's authorities in October, is not its agent.
Kim is known to have worked as a missionary in the Chinese border town of Dandong. His age and other personal details have not been made public.
In a separate case, Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary, has been held in the North since November 2012 when he was arrested while leading a group of tourists. He was accused of unspecified anti-state crimes and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor