A Canadian government delegation visited North Korea this week to discuss the issue of a Korean-Canadian pastor detained in the communist state, the North's state media reported Thursday.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that the delegation, led by Sarah Taylor, the director general in charge of North Asia and Oceania at Global Affairs Canada, visited Pyongyang from Tuesday through Thursday for talks over "issues of mutual concern," including one involving the pastor Lim Hyeon-soo.

The delegation met with Choi Son-hee, which the KCNA referred to as the director general in charge of North American affairs at Pyongyang's foreign ministry. It also visited the incarcerated pastor and paid a courtesy call to Han Song-ryol, the North's deputy foreign minister.

Lim has been detained in the North since he entered the country on a humanitarian mission in January last year. In December, the North's supreme court sentenced him to life in prison with hard labor, citing his "subversive plots and activities" against the North's regime under the guise of humanitarian aid and free donations. 

He has visited the reclusive state more than 100 times for humanitarian activities since 1997.

(Yonhap)