North Korean captures another Christian missionary

An Australian missionary, John Short, who carried Christian pamphlets into North Korea, has been detained. Last year, American Christian missionary Kenneth Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea.

An Australian missionary who carried Christian pamphlets into North Korea has been detained there, his family said Wednesday.

John Short, 75, has lived in Hong Kong for 50 years and has been arrested previously in China for evangelizing. Short was questioned and then arrested in his Pyongyang hotel on Sunday, a day after he arrived in the North Korean capital, his family said in a statement.

"He was carrying Korean literature on his person and that could be the reason, but again I don't know," his wife, Karen, told The Associated Press. She said she learned about his detention from a friend travelling with Short in a regular tour group who was able to return to China on Tuesday.

While North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government.

Last year, American missionary Kenneth Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after being accused of committing hostile acts in North Korea. Last week, the US State Department said that North Korea has rescinded permission for a US envoy to visit Bae. The State Department also said in a statement that civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson had offered to travel to Pyongyang at the request of Bae’s family.

Karen Short said she was initially "shocked" when she learned of her husband's detention.

Now, "I know he's courageous and he's in God's hands," Short said in an interview at the offices of the Christian publishing company the couple run.

"I believe that at the right time that the right thing will happen and he will be released."

Short, from Barmers, South Australia, has been arrested multiple times while evangelizing in mainland China, which he started visiting after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, according to a biography on a Christian website, Gospel Attract.

He was banned from entering China for nearly two years after his second arrest in 1996. Authorities later let him back in and he was arrested several more times for "speaking out about the brutality against Chinese Christians," said the site.

Short's wife said he was visiting North Korea for the second time. His first trip was a year ago "so he knew what he was going into," she said. She said he wanted to be there "rubbing shoulders with people as much as possible."

"There's risk involved. He knew that too, but when you know what you must do, you do it," said his wife.

"It's not an open country and it doesn't welcome Christians — yes, we realize that," she said. "But that doesn't mean we stand by and don't do anything because we care for the situation and we pray about it but sometimes you have to do more than talk."

Staff at the reception desk at Pyongyang's Yanggakdo Hotel, one of the city's main hotels for foreigners, said Short had stayed there until Tuesday.

North Korean officials are refusing to take the tour company's calls, the family statement said.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it has asked the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang to confirm Short's wellbeing and to seek more information.

Australia has no diplomatic representation in North Korea and is represented in Pyongyang by the Swedish Embassy. The North Korean government has not made any statements on the matter.

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McGuirk contributed from Canberra, Australia. AP journalists Kelvin M. Chan in Hong Kong and Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang contributed to this report.

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