Missionary says North Korea interrogated him daily

An Australian missionary detained in North Korea for trying to spread Christianity today said he was interrogated for four hours a day and kept under 24-hour guard during his grueling 13-day investigation.
North Korea deported John Short, 75, on Monday, saying he had apologised for anti-state religious acts and requested forgiveness.
Short said in a statement to Australian Associated Press today that recounting Biblical scriptures helped him endure the "long and grueling investigation."
"There were two-hour sessions each morning, which were repeated again in the afternoons," he said.
Short, an enthusiastic walker, said his confinement in a room in Pyongyang under constant guard was stressful.

"This I found to be most painful physically as an active senior person," he said. "I missed my freedom to walk very much."

Short said he was detained on February 18 as he prepared to leave his Pyongyang hotel for the airport. He said he "openly and honestly" admitted his crime as worded in the indictment: that he distributed Bible tracts with the purpose of making North Koreans become Christians.
"I strongly protested that I was not a spy, nor working with any South Korean organisations nor was I hostile to the DPRK," he wrote, referring to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

He said he was told that he faced 15 years in prison for distributing religious pamphlets at a Buddhist temple and on a crowded train.
"I confessed that I had knowingly broken the law in what I believed is my God-directed duty and as I do in every place and country I visit," Short said.
Short, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1964, did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press for comment today.
Authorities in North Korea arrested Short for spreading Bible tracts near a Buddhist temple in Pyongyang on February 16, the birthday of late leader Kim Jong Il, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.