The wife of an Australian Christian missionary detained in North Korea is appealing for international pressure to assist his release.
John Short is reported to have been arrested for possession of Christian religious materials.
His wife, Karen Short spoke to Zara Zaher from the couple's home in Hong Kong.
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The 75-year-old was taken from his Pyongyang hotel on Monday by North Korean police, two days after arriving from Beijing as part of a small tour group, his wife Karen Short said.
He is being held for allegedly distributing Korean-language Christian pamphlets and attempting to proselytise, which is illegal in a country that views foreign missionaries as seditious elements intent on fomenting unrest.
Canberra is working on the case via the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which represents its interests in the absence of diplomatic relations between Australia and North Korea.
Short has lived in Asia for five decades and runs a publishing house in Hong Kong that distributes calendars, Bibles and tracts in Chinese and other languages, his wife said.
Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North Korean constitution, it does not exist in practice and religious activity is severely restricted to officially-recognised groups linked to the government.
North Korea is also holding US citizen Kenneth Bae, described by a North Korean court as a militant Christian evangelist. He was arrested in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour on charges of seeking to topple the government.
