An Australian missionary, detained for two weeks in North Korea for spreading Christianity, said he was interrogated four hours a day and kept under constant guard.
John Short, 75, was released on Monday after North Korea said he had apologized for illegal religious acts and had requested forgiveness.
In a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday, Short recounted that scripture helped him endure the “long and grueling investigation.”
“There were two-hour sessions each morning, which were repeated again in the afternoons,” he said in the statement.
Short said he was held prisoner under guard in a room in the capital, Pyongyang.
“This I found to be most painful physically as an active senior person,” he said.
Short, a resident of Hong Kong since 1964, said he was taken into custody on Feb. 18 as he was about to leave his hotel for the airport.
“I strongly protested that I was not a spy, nor working with any South Korean organizations nor was I hostile to the DPRK,” Short writes in his statement, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
He said he admitted what officials called a crime — distributing Biblical texts with the intent to convert North Koreans to Christianity.
