SEOUL: South Korea urged North Korea Sunday to release a Seoul missionary sentenced to hard labour for life for allegedly spying and operating an underground church, calling his sentence "deeply regrettable".

Kim Jeong-Wook -- captured in the North last October -- faced an array of charges including illegally entering the country, spying for Seoul's intelligence agency, running an underground church and other "anti-state propaganda and agitation", according to the North's official KCNA news agency.

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