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A pastor famed for helping people escape North Korea was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for sexually abusing teenage defectors in his care.
A Seoul court handed Chun Ki-won, 67, the sentence for molesting five students at his boarding school in South Korea between 2016 and 2023. His arrest in August shocked his homeland where he’d previously been revered as the “Asian Schindler” for his work aiding those attempting to flee Kim Jong Un’s regime.
The pastor had denied the allegations of abusing six North Korean adolescents, including those sleeping at the school he founded through his Durihana organization—a prominent nonprofit that supports North Korean defectors fleeing via routes in China. A court ruled Wednesday that the evidence against him was overwhelming, convicting him in five of the six cases against him.