Three Korean missionaries detained for more than a decade in North Korea will receive the Graciela Fernandez Meijide Human Rights Award in August in absentia.

The three men — Choi Chun-gil, Kim Jong-Uk, and Kim Kuk-gi — were helping North Korean defectors and underground churches in Northeast China before North Korean agents arrested them and took them to jails inside North Korea. These awards honor those detained under oppressive authoritarian regimes.

Missionary Kim Jong-Uk, 62, served North Korean refugees in China. Authorities arrested him in 2013 after he entered North Korea with Bibles.

Pastor Kim Kuk-gi, 72, helped North Korean defectors in China. He was arrested in October 2014 and charged with espionage and spreading religious propaganda.

Missionary Choi Chun-gil, 70, was arrested in December 2014 for transporting religious and humanitarian goods to North Koreans. Authorities charged him with espionage.

North Korea sentenced the three men to life in a North Korean labor camp. The South Korean government has repeatedly called for the missionaries’ release.

Communist authorities send Christians in North Korea to prison and labor camps, where they are starved, overworked, and tortured. Analysts estimate that more than 30,000 Christians are currently suffering in these camps. North Korea denies the existence of such camps.

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