North Korea missionary arrest: wife of John Short awaits news of his fate
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Version 0 of 1. The wife of an Australian Christian missionary being detained in North Korea says she knows nothing of his whereabouts or welfare. John Short, 75, arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday and was taken from his hotel by local police days later. His travel companion, Wang Chong, has told the ABC Short left pamphlet materials promoting Christianity on a tour of a Buddhist temple. Authorities were informed later by Short’s local tour company of his action, which breaches North Korean laws against spreading religious material. Short’s wife, Karen, says she has had no contact from her husband since he left Hong Kong on Wednesday. While she was not unwise to any danger, she was not frightened. “We both knew before he went in what he was going into,” Karen Short told Fairfax Radio. “It’s a difficult country but as Christians that’s what we do – you go into the difficult places to make a difference.” “I would love him to be home but I know my husband and he is well able to face what he’s facing, I believe.” She said her husband went to Pyongyang because he wanted to help locals in “a dark and difficult place”. She said she knew her husband could be sentenced to hard labour for possession of illegal materials. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) has told Karen Short her husband’s consular case is “different and difficult”. Tony Abbott said the federal government did what it could to help citizens in trouble, but warned Australians not to break the laws of countries they visit. “I do have this message for Australians abroad: you do have to be careful to obey the laws of the country you’re in,” the prime minister said in Sydney on Thursday. “Not all countries have the same legal system or the same laws as Australia.” The Chinese travel company that booked Short’s trip said it had been told he had admitted to travelling to North Korea for purposes other than tourism. He had missed a planned visit of local sites with the tour company on the third day of the trip. “So the North Koreans could have become even more suspicious that he wasn’t there as a tourist,” a BTG employee, Han Weiping, told the ABC. It was Short’s second trip to North Korea and he was due home on Thursday. Karen Short said she does not know what her husband was doing, why he was charged or his whereabouts. She said her husband is an author who writes and translates into Asian languages and had spent 50 years there, mainly in China but also Myanmar and Vietnam. “This is his life work. He loves China, he loves Chinese and worked in Asia in the difficult areas where people have real deep need,” she said. She described her husband as a healthy and fit man. She said the Australian consulate in Hong Kong is dealing with the matter. “Canberra has contacted me. They’ve been very helpful, as much as possible, but they have no diplomatic relations with North Korea,” she said. She says Dfat is working through its embassy in Seoul and is in contact with Swedish authorities, who handle Australia’s consular interests in North Korea, to confirm Short’s well-being. |