While a student, he met Ahn Chang-ho, a Korean independence activist and one of the early leaders of the Korean-American immigrant community in the United States.

In November 1905, Korea was pressured into signing the Eulsa Treaty, which handed full control of the Korean peninsula to Japan.

Lim was also a leader in Shinminhoe, a Korean-American immigrant community group, and served as secretary for The Korea Daily News.

In 1910, Lim was implicated after an attempt was made to assassinate Masatake Terauchi, the Governor-General of Korea (Chôsen Sôtoku).

A young Korean man named An Myeong-Gun, was alleged to have attempted to shoot Terauchi at Suncheon Station.

An was a cousin of An Jung-geun, a Korean independence activist who assassinated Itō Hirobumi (伊藤博文), the first Prime Minister of Japan and then-Japanese Resident-General of Korea in 1906.

In February 1919, after two Korean independence fighters - Jung Shung Kyong and Lee Sung Hun – were jailed, Lim and other members of the New People's Association set about planning a mass protest against Japanese occupation.

In 1923, in order to continue the Korean Independence Movement, Lim and his fellow activists established another nationalist newspaper Shi Dae Ilbo.