By Katherine Weber
John Short, the 75-year-old Christian missionary who was recently freed from imprisonment in North Korea, said remembering Bible scriptures helped him through his “grueling” 13-day investigation by government authorities.
“There were two-hour sessions each morning, which were repeated again in the afternoons,” Short, originally from South Australia, told the Australian Associated Press, adding that he was also kept under 24-hour guard watch for the duration of his imprisonment.
The 75-year-old Christian missionary, who has resided in Hong Kong since 1964, told the news agency that the interrogations were especially difficult because he is an avid walker, and being forced to sit in an enclosed room all day really took a toll on his physical health. “This I found to be most painful physically as an active senior person,” he said. “I missed my freedom to walk very much.”
Short was received by Australian embassy officials in Beijing on Monday after being released by North Korean government officials in part due to his old age, according to the state-run media agency KCNA. Before Short’s release, the missionary provided a statement admitting to breaking country laws by distributing Bible tracts, both near a Buddhist temple and on a crowded train. It is not unusual for North Korea’s government officials to force prisoners to release a “confession” admitting their “crimes” before they can be freed.
Read more at http://global.christianpost.com/news/australian-christian-missionary-john-short-says-scripture-helped-him-endure-north-korea-interrogations-115745/