Australian Missionary Detained in North Korea

Updated Feb. 20, 2014 4:10 a.m. ETHONG KONG—The wife of an Australian missionary detained in North Korea said her husband traveled to Pyongyang to try to “make a difference in a difficult country.”

The wife of detained Australian missionary John Short says her husband wanted to make a difference in North Korea. The WSJ’s Deborah Kan speaks to Karen Short about the purpose of his trip to the secretive state.

Speaking in an interview in Hong Kong, where the couple live, Karen Short said her husband wanted to “discreetly make contact” with North Koreans if there was an appropriate occasion.
John Short, 75, was questioned Sunday at his hotel in Pyongyang and then detained by law-enforcement officials, according to a news release issued in Australia. Mr. Short was traveling with a tour that had arrived in the country a day earlier. A member of the group phoned Ms. Short after leaving the country Feb. 18 to inform her of her husband’s detention.
Australian foreign affairs officials say they are working with their counterparts in Sweden to determine Mr. Short’s whereabouts. Australia has no diplomatic presence in North Korea, and its interests are represented by the Swedish Embassy.
Ms. Short said she hasn’t spoken to her husband since Feb. 12, when he left Hong Kong to travel to Beijing before joining a tour to North Korea.
“He carried a gospel leaflet titled, ‘It Doesn’t Matter What I Believe,’” Ms. Short said, adding that the pamphlets had been translated into Korean.
“It’s possibly not terribly welcome in the country,” she said.
A Chinese national who traveled with the Australian missionary said Mr. Short had left a Christian leaflet at a Buddhist temple in North Korea, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Their tour guide reported the leaflet to security officials, who found more Korean-language religious materials at Mr. Short’s hotel room, the report said.
North Korea imposes severe penalties on those caught proselytizing, which the regime views as a threat to stability. U.S. missionary Kenneth Bae has been imprisoned in North Korea for more than a year after being sentenced to 15 years hard labor last year for unspecified “hostile acts” against the country.
In theory, North Korea’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and Pyongyang even has a few churches. But they are widely regarded as fakes designed to give outsiders the impression of religious freedom. Buddhist temples in the country are also widely considered historical artifacts rather than places of worship.
A United Nations report issued Monday said North Korea had “an almost complete denial of the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”
In recent years, other missionaries from the U.S. have been held by North Korea and released only after senior officials traveled to Pyongyang to retrieve them. North Korea has twice extended and then revoked invitations for a top U.S. official to come to Pyongyang to discuss Mr. Bae.
North Korea has made no reference to Mr. Short through its state media. North Korea sought to reopen an embassy in Australia last year, but was refused by Canberra following a spring of threatening rhetoric directed toward the U.S., South Korea and other countries.
Asked if she and her husband were aware of the danger of proselytizing in North Korea, she said: “We are not ignorant and we are aware it is not a free country, but we care and that is why he wanted to go in.”
Mr. Short also visited North Korea in 2013 with Christian literature, she added.
“Our ultimate prayer is that we will see him returned home,” Ms. Short said.
—Alastair Gale contributed to this article.
Write to Deborah Kan at Deborah.Kan@wsj.com

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