Police accused him of molesting six North Korean teenagers, including defectors sleeping in the dormitories of the alternative school he had founded at his Durihana mission.

Chun had denied the charges but a court on Wednesday ruled the victims' evidence as irrefutable.

"The victims are making consistent statements and it includes content that cannot be stated without first-hand experience of the circumstances", Judge Seung-jeong Kim of the Seoul Central District Court said.

He claims to have helped more than 1,000 North Koreans escape the hardline regime of the Kim family over the past 25 years, and has personally been condemned by Pyongyang for his work.