Australian missionary John Short has admitted to North Korean authorities that his trip to the isolated country was not only for tourism, a report said today.
The 75-year-old was taken from his Pyongyang hotel on Monday by North Korean police, two days after arriving from Beijing as part of a small tour group, his wife Karen Short said.
He is being held for allegedly distributing Korean-language Christian pamphlets and attempting to proselytise, which is illegal in a country that views foreign missionaries as seditious elements intent on fomenting unrest.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said he was on a two-man tour with Chinese Christian Wang Chong, who has returned to Beijing and said their problems stemmed from a visit to a Buddhist temple.
He said Short left pamphlet materials promoting Christianity at the site.
"They took us to a mountain to visit a temple and a Buddhist statue was broken or smashed by someone. The door of this temple was damaged too," Wang told the broadcaster.
"They were not happy for us to see this damage. We took some photos. They asked us to delete them and we deleted them.
"Mr Short believes in God. I believe in God too. He didn't feel comfortable in his heart and he left a pamphlet there relating to the gospel."
Their local North Korean tour guide reported this, and security officials found more Korean language Christian pamphlets in his luggage at his hotel, Wang said.
ABC said the Chinese tour company that booked the trip, BTG, was in touch with its North Korean counterparts, and employee Han Weiping claimed Short had admitted he was there for more than just tourism.
"When we called the DPRK travel agency they said he had admitted that he didn't go to North Korea only for tourism," Weiping told ABC, adding that the trip was supposed to be for four days.
"The pamphlet event happened on the second day," she said.
"And on the third day it was planned for them to visit some sites, but the Australian man said he didn't want to go out and instead wanted to stay in the hotel.
"So the North Koreans could've become even more suspicious that he wasn't there as a tourist."
Canberra is working on the case via the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which represents its interests in the absence of diplomatic relations between Australia and North Korea.
