Buy Photo Jeffrey Fowle of Miamisburg was detained in North Korea after he left a Bible in a bar bathroom. He walks with his son Chris, 11, wife Tatyana and daughter Stephanie, 9. (Photo: The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran )Buy Photo 
 
 Jeffrey Fowle, the Miamisburg man who became the center of an international incident when he left a Bible in North Korea, and who later served nearly six months in detention for doing so, knew exactly what he was doing. He knew the risk and he knew the possible consequences. And he thinks it was all worth it. 
 
 He also now has a chore list about a mile long. 
 
 Fowle, a municipal worker, husband and father of three children, spoke publicly Friday for the first time since being released. He said that his visit to North Korea in April of this year was motivated in part by a desire to visit the country, which few Westerners have seen in decades. But clearly this was a trip about faith. And proselytizing. 
 
 Religious activity is almost completely non-existent in North Korea according to the Central Intelligence Agency. The U.S. Department of State in September spoke of the: "ongoing, widespread, and systematic human rights violations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea." DPRK are the initials commonly used for the country of North Korea. 
 
 In the weeks before Fowle left Miamsiburg for North Korea, another American was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for spreading the word of God. So Fowle knew the risks. 
 
 "I did, I knew I was going against the laws of the DPRK," Fowle said. "Having seen the plight of the people, I knew about the severe Christian persecution. I wanted to help them." 
 
 So Fowle left a Korean/English Bible in a public bathroom in a restaurant/bar in Pyongyang. Clearly his tour group was being watched because the next day the tour guide asked if anybody had left anything behind. Fowle would not deny his actions even though he knew it meant trouble. he raised his hand and said he left a Bible. 
 
 For two days nothing happened. Then, at the airport at Pyongyang, when he was preparing to leave the country, Fowle was detained. 
 
 He was held in his hotel room for nearly a month, and then a detention center for the next five months. Did he think God would protect him. "Yes, and I believe I was protected, I was never harmed physically," Fowle said. "I was never in jeopardy of giving up faith." 
 
 But that is not to say his time was easy. The beginning, especially, was arduous. Fowle did not know what his wife knew about his disappearance. He kept thinking of Tatyana waiting for him at an airport. He wondered about the fears of his children, Alex, 13, Chris 11, and Stephanie 9. 
 
 He worried he would be sentenced to 15 years of labor. The United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations. So he had no information and no visits. The Swedish Embassy does try to look out for American citizens in North Korea who are in trouble. 
 
 Only when a Swedish diplomat was able to visit Fowle did he learn that his wife and kids did know where he was. He also got two chocolate bars and learned that the family church, Bethel Baptist Church in West Carrollton, was taking care of his family. Fowle said he broke down for the first time when he learned they were OK. 
 
 The Swedes were instrumental in securing the release of Fowle, although he says he still does not understand why he was let go and two other Americans remain held by the North Koreans. 
 
 The government of North Korea said that it's leader, Kim Jong-un ordered the release of Fowle according to the Associated Press. 
 
 Fowle says he prays daily for the release of Bae and for Matthew Miller who was just sentenced to six years. Bae is a Christian missionary. Miller's exact actions, or "crime," are less well known. 
 
 Fowle never had any contact with either man while he was in North Korea or after he was detained. 
 
 He knows the price he paid for his faith was high. He knows his family paid a price as well. But he believes all people deserve to have access to the Christian faith. "Maybe one Bible can do a lot of good." 
 
 Now Fowle is trying to return to normal. The city of Moraine agreed to rehire him this past week. He has spent 26 years with the city's streets department. 
 
 Buy Photo Jeffrey Fowle of Miamisburg was detained in North Korea after he left a Bible in a bar bathroom. After being held in detention for six months, he was released ten days ago. He walks with his family, from left: wife Tatyana, daughter Stephanie, 9, and sons Chris, 11, and Alex, 13. (Photo: The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran ) 
 
 And he is more happy than ever to spend time at his church and to spend time with his wife and children. "Our family has come together even more closely," Fowle said. "I am just appreciating my wife and kids." 
 
 Tatyana is glad to have her husband home as well. The worry, she said was difficult for her, but she was able to focus on raising their children. And, she was able to make a nice chore list for him. "I always have a list of chores for him to do," Tatyana said. "He told me that when he was in North Korea, he was wondering what was going to be on my list. He said he even started making his own. That's when I knew it was bad." 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1tJrBp3 ||||| SEOUL Aug 2American tourist Jeffrey Fowle was arrested by North Korean authorities for leaving a bible under a bin in the toilet at a club for foreign sailors, a source familiar with Fowle's case told Reuters. 
 
 During his ten day trip to North Korea, Fowle's fellow travellers described the middle-aged street repairs worker from Miamisburg, Ohio as a warm, amiable, quiet man. 
 
 On May 4, towards the end of an evening spent eating and drinking in Chongjin, a large industrial city on North Korea's east coast, Fowle's action led to him being thrown in jail, where he is awaiting trial in one of the world's most inhospitable countries. 
 
 He left a bilingual English-Korean bible in the restaurant he and his fellow travellers were about to leave, the source, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivities surrounding the case, told Reuters. 
 
 In it, Fowle had written his name and phone number, and inserted photos of himself and his family between its pages. 
 
 He was arrested three days later at the airport where he was due to board a flight out of North Korea. 
 
 Fowle and fellow detained U.S. tourist Matthew Miller - who was arrested in April for a separate incident - said they will face trial soon and have called on the U.S. government to help secure their release in an interview to the Associated Press, released on Friday. 
 
 A hand-written letter from Fowle shown in the interview confirmed he was arrested for intentionally leaving a bible in the northern city of Chongjin. 
 
 It is unclear why Fowle left the bible, the source familiar with Fowle's case said. Media reports in Ohio said the 56-year-old is a church goer and was once a member of his school's bible club - but there is little evidence to suggest he was a missionary. 
 
 The source familiar with Fowle's arrest also said he did not seem overtly religious. 
 
 Yet, at the Chongjin Seamen's Club - a faded compound originally designed as a hostel for visiting mariners that sells foreign whiskeys and serves local food - Fowle wrapped a bilingual English-Korean bible bound in fake leather in a Chinese newspaper and hid it the restroom, under a bin designed to discard the used toilet paper North Korea's ageing plumbing can't handle. 
 
 A cleaner found the package, and alerted local authorities. 
 
 When his guides asked if anyone had left anything at the club - a small cluster with shops, a sauna and noodle restaurants also open to locals with the cash to spend on cheap drinks - he said it was him, and that he "must've dropped it." 
 
 Fowle said at the time the bible had "fallen out of his pocket" when using the squat toilet, but the bible was too big to be pocket-sized, the source said. 
 
 While North Korea technically espouses freedom of religion it is ranked as one of the world's most oppressive regimes in terms of such freedom. Pyongyang has dismissed recent reports on its oppression of religion as an attempt by the United States to "tarnish the image" of the isolated country. 
 
 Two months before Fowle visited North Korea, Australian missionary John Short had been arrested for leaving bible tracts at areas open to tourists in the isolated country. Short, 75, was released on account of his advanced age after state media released a written apology. 
 
 Fowle appeared in an Associated Press video on Friday alongside Miller, who was arrested for ripping up his tourist visa and attempting to claim political asylum, according to state media. 
 
 North Korea has three U.S. citizens in custody, including Kenneth Bae, a missionary of Korean descent who was arrested in November 2012 and convicted and sentenced to 15 years hard labour last year. 
 
 FOWLE'S ARREST 
 
 Chongjin is one of the most sensitive cities open to tourists visiting North Korea. The scene for much of journalist Barbara Demmick's 'Nothing to Envy' book, based on a collection of interviews, it is the very epitome of the grim, grey Orwellian North Korea recalled by defectors. 
 
 "They don't mess about in Chongjin," one tourism source with experience of working in the city said. 
 
 If Fowle had hidden a bible anywhere else in North Korea, he probably wouldn't have been arrested, sources in the North Korean tourist industry said. Sources working in North Korea are often forced to remain anonymous when talking to the press for fear of state reprisal or loss of business. 
 
 If the staff at the Seamen's Club who found the bible had told Fowle's guides, and not the authorities, they might have avoided the arrest too, the source familiar with his arrest said. 
 
 Fowle hid the bible on May 4. He later admitted to the group that he had left it there deliberately, for "someone to read." 
 
 The rest of Fowle's group didn't talk to him when they heard what he had done. They felt he had put them in danger. 
 
 After the incident, Fowle had two days of normal sightseeing in Pyongyang, where he took photos of large bronze statues of North Korea's former leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. 
 
 He was arrested on May 7, once he cleared customs at Pyongyang's Sunan airport. (Reporting By James Pearson; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Simon Cameron-Moore)
– When North Korea imprisoned American tourist Jeffrey Fowle, it accused him of planting a Bible in a bid to spread Christianity. A family spokesperson denied at the time that he was on a religious mission, but now that he's free, Fowle admits that Pyongyang was right. "I did, I knew I was going against the laws of the DPRK," the Ohio resident tells the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Having seen the plight of the people, I knew about the severe Christian persecution. I wanted to help them." The 56-year-old says he left the Bible in a public bathroom under a trash bin. The next day, a tour guide asked the group if anyone had left anything behind, and Fowle, whose name was on the Bible, raised his hand. He got detained two days later at the airport in Pyongyang and remained in custody for nearly six months. "I knew it was a risk, that I was taking a gamble, but I felt compelled to do that to aid the underground church in some small way," Fowle tells the AP in a separate interview. The married father of three is back to work Monday with the streets department in the city of Moraine. The city paid him during his absence, but his bosses have made clear that he'll lose his job if does something like this again. Two Americans remain detained in North Korea: Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae.