A North Korean court sentenced a South Korea-born Canadian pastor to life imprisonment with hard labour for alleged crimes against the state. 

Hyeon Soo Lim, who is a pastor at a church in Toronto, had travelled to the Kim Jong-un-ruled country multiple times for humanitarian issues, as per reports. 

The Canadian pastor had been produced at a media conference in Pyongyang in July, where he confessed to plotting to overthrow the North Korean state. Lim had been detained in February. 

In his confession, he claimed that he had travelled to North Korea to gather information to 'use to drive the regime to a collapse "with the love of God"'. 

Lim, who is in his early 60s, has health problems, including 'very high blood pressure', his church members had said earlier, according to Reuters. 

North Korean prison camps are notorious for reports of torture and starvation.