{"id":220586,"date":"2019-06-27T02:33:09","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T06:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=220586"},"modified":"2019-06-27T02:33:09","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T06:33:09","slug":"australia-probes-reports-of-citizen-detained-in-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/27\/australia-probes-reports-of-citizen-detained-in-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia probes reports of citizen detained in North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The family of Alek Sigley said they had no confirmation that the 29-year-old Pyongyang university student had been detained. But the family’s statement said Sigley had not been in digital contact with family and friends since Tuesday morning which was unusual for him. (File Photo: Alek Sigley\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian government said Thursday it was \u201curgently seeking clarification\u201d on reports that an Australian had been detained in\u00a0North\u00a0Korea, which the attorney-general described as a \u201cmatter of the utmost seriousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family of Alek Sigley said they had no confirmation that the 29-year-old Pyongyang university student had been detained. But the family’s statement said Sigley had not been in digital contact with family and friends since Tuesday morning which was unusual for him.<\/p>\n

Attorney-General Christian Porter, who is based in Sigley’s hometown of Perth, told Perth Radio 6PR: \u201cIt is a very unusual set of circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular jurisdiction, most Australians’ common sense would tell them, makes this a matter of the utmost seriousness,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man who has been reported as being detained in\u00a0North\u00a0Korea, but did not confirm his identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department is urgently seeking clarification. Owing to our privacy obligations, we will not provide further comment,\u201d a department statement said.<\/p>\n

Sigley said on social media that he was studying Korean literature at Kim Il Sung University and ran guided tours through a travel company he founded, Tongil Tours.<\/p>\n

He told Australian Broadcasting Corp. two years ago that he wanted to break down negative stereotypes about the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we thought it was unsafe, we would stop doing these tours,\u201d Sigley said. \u201cWe wouldn’t be able to bear the moral and legal responsibility of bringing people to\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0if it was dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Official media in\u00a0North\u00a0Korea\u00a0haven’t mentioned the reported arrest.<\/p>\n

South Korean television station Channel A cited an unidentified source in reporting the arrest but the source told the network it wasn’t immediately clear why Sigley had been detained.<\/p>\n

Australia does not have an embassy in\u00a0North\u00a0Korea, but consular assistance can be provided to Australians by the Swedish Embassy on a limited basis.<\/p>\n

South\u00a0Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the country’s main spy agency, said it cannot confirm the report.<\/p>\n

In March this year, Sigley wrote for Guardian Australia about living in\u00a0North\u00a0Korea, saying that as a long-term foreign resident on a student visa he had \u201cnearly unprecedented access to Pyongyang.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m free to wander around the city, without anyone accompanying me,\u201d he wrote. \u201cInteraction with locals can be limited at times, but I can shop and dine almost anywhere I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

Associated Press journalist Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South\u00a0Korea, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian government said Thursday it was \u201curgently seeking clarification\u201d on reports that an Australian had been …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":220588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-rod-mcguirk","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220589,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220586\/revisions\/220589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}