(Reuters) – North Korea freed a Australian missionary who had been jailed for promoting Christianity on Monday, releasing a picture of a handwritten confession by the elderly man who was arrested last month.
John Short was picked up at Beijing airport by an Australian embassy vehicle and did not speak, according to Reuters Television journalists at the airport.
He was accused by Pyongyang of committing a crime by distributing tracts from the bible at a Buddhist temple in Pyongyang on Kim Jong Il’s birthday, a national holiday in North Korea to mark the ruling dynasty’s second leader.
“I deeply apologize for what I have done by spreading my Bible tracts on February 16th the birthday of his Excellency Kim Jong Il,” Short said in the confession released by KCNA and dated March 1.
Short admitted wrongdoing and apologized, KCNA said, and released photos that showed him authoring a three-page handwritten confession and using red ink to mark each page with his thumbprint.
Read more at http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/03/us-korea-north-australian-idUSBREA2200M20140303