North Korea freed a Canadian pastor serving a life sentence there on humanitarian grounds, the official KCNA news agency said on Wednesday, just hours after the United States warned it would counter any threat from the North with “fire and fury.”

The release came a day after Canadian officials said a delegation led by the country’s national security adviser had traveled to North Korea to discuss the case of Hyeon Soo Lim, sentenced to hard labor for life in December 2015. Canadian officials had notified Lim's son James over the weekend that the country would send a delegation to North Korea—including Daniel Jean, the prime minister's national security adviser, and a doctor—with a letter to North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, a family spokesperson told CNN. Also known as Hyeon Soo Lim, who served at one of the largest churches in Canada, he was sentenced to hard labour for life in December 2015 for what North Korea says was an attempt to overthrow the regime. "Rim Hyon Su, a Canadian civilian, was released on sick bail according to the decision of the Central Court of the DPRK on August 9, 2017, from the humanitarian viewpoint," KCNA said, using the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. There was no obvious direct connection between the release and the standoff with the United States, but North Korea has in the past attracted the attention of Washington, and visits by high-profile Americans, with the detention and release of U.S. citizens. After the death of Otto Warmbier in June, an American citizen detained in North Korea and only released when he had already suffered brain damage, Trudeau has faced increased calls to pressure Pyongyang to free the Canadian minister. Warmbier, sentenced last year to 15 years' hard labour for trying to steal a propaganda item from his hotel during a tour, died in a Cincinnati hospital just days after being released in a coma — the circumstances of his death remain unclear. North Korea is still holding three Americans. The U.S. State Department said last week it would ban U.S. nationals from travelling to the isolated country, beginning in September. His family said he had been traveling to and from North Korea on humanitarian trips to establish orphanages, nurseries and nursing homes and had visited the country more than 100 times in the past 20 years. CNN interviewed the pastor in January 2016, finding he was forced to work eight hours a day, six days a week, in a camp where he had never seen another inmate. While U.S. President Donald Trump was threatening North Korea with “fire and fury” as tensions between the two countries escalated Tuesday night, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was taking a quieter line with Pyongyang—with great effect.
North Korea releases imprisoned Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim on "sick bail."