An elderly Australian Christian missionary has been detained in North Korea after allegedly distributing Korean-language Christian pamphlets.  Australia has no official presence in North Korea, so the Department of Foreign Affairs has to use a third country as an intermediary to find out what’s going on.

75-year old John Short “arrived Saturday morning from Beijing” as part of an organized tour group, according to his wife Karen Short from their home in Hong Kong, where they’ve lived for 40 years and run a business publishing bibles in Asian languages.  But on a tour of a Buddhist temple, a Chinese Christian who was part of the same group says Short left religious pamphlets behind. 

Freedom of religion is allegedly enshrined in North Korea’s constitution, but Pyongyang views Christian missionaries with deep suspicious and considers them subversive elements.  American missionary Kenneth Bae is serving a 15-year term in a prison camp for alleged missionary work. 

“We are in close contact with Swedish officials in Pyongyang to seek their assistance in confirming the well-being of Mr. Short and to obtain more information,” a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said.