US missionary 'detained by North Korea'

North Korean border guards detained an American missionary as soon as he walked into the communist nation in a bid to draw attention to Pyongyang’s human rights abuses, an activist said today.

Robert Park, 28, slipped across the frozen Tumen River into the North from China on Christmas Day carrying a letter calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to shut down the country’s political prison camps. There has been no word from him since.