Australian missionary taken into custody in North Korea
A 75-year-old Australian missionary who traveled to North Korea as part of a tour group has been detained there, his wife said. John Short had with him some Gospel tracts in Korean “which seem to be at the core of the detention,” his wife said in a statement Wednesday.
“It is alleged he is being asked questions such as, ‘Who sent you?’, ‘To what organization do you belong?’, ‘Who translated this material into Korean?'” his wife, Karen Short, said.
Short, who lives in Hong Kong, went to Pyongyang on Saturday. The next night, police questioned him at his hotel and took him into custody, according to the statement.
Short has been arrested multiple times while doing evangelical work in China “for speaking out about brutality against Chinese Christians,” according to a biography on a religious website named Gospel Attract. In the 1990s, he became “persona non grata” with Chinese authorities for almost two years and was unable to visit mainland China, the biography said.
North Korea “considers the spread of Christianity a particularly serious threat, since it challenges ideologically the official personality cult and provides a platform for social and political organization and interaction outside the realm of the state,” a United Nations panel said in a report released this week.
“People caught practicing Christianity are subject to severe punishments in violation of the right to freedom of religion and the prohibition of religious discrimination,” the report by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea said.
[CNN]
Tags: Christianity, John Short, missionary, north koreaThis entry was posted in China, DPRK Government, Humanitarian Aid and Relief, Prison Camps by Grant Montgomery.
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[…] that those being held — Korean American Kenneth Bae, South Korean Kim Jong Uk, and Australian John Short — should be remembered in our prayers “along with the 30,000 North Korean underground […]
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[…] his release from North Korea, 75-year-old Australian missionary John Short reported that he was interrogated for four hours a day and kept under 24-hour guard during his 13 […]
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[…] and grueling investigation.” John Short, an Australian, was arrested in North Korea in 2014 and held for almost a month after he left […]
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An expert on North Korea says the plight of South Australian missionary John Short could be “complicated” by revelations one of his three sons is a major in the Australian army.
Dr. Leonid Petrov, who teaches the history of North Korean politics at the Australian National University in Canberra, said Mr Short’s capture was a “bonanza” for the regime of Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un.
Dr. Petrov said North Korean security forces were very skilled “in physical and mental torture” and would be using this time to “good effect”.
“They will probably press [John Short] to sign a confession,” he said. “From what I read, I doubt he will bend and succumb to just a bit of pressure to change his views.”