{"id":221482,"date":"2019-07-04T02:42:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T06:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=221482"},"modified":"2019-07-04T02:42:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T06:42:31","slug":"prime-minister-detained-australian-leaves-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/04\/prime-minister-detained-australian-leaves-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime minister: Detained Australian leaves North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_221484\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-221484\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Prime-minister-Detained-Australian-leaves-North-Korea-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-221484\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Prime-minister-Detained-Australian-leaves-North-Korea-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Prime-minister-Detained-Australian-leaves-North-Korea-.jpg 750w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Prime-minister-Detained-Australian-leaves-North-Korea--300x206.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-221484\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cI&#8217;m pleased to announce that Mr. Alex Sigley has been today released from detention in the Democratic People&#8217;s Republic of Korea,\u201d Scott Morrison told Parliament to cheers from lawmakers. (File <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scottmorrison4cook\/photos\/a.729865237057882\/2348333031877753\/?type=3&amp;theater\">photo<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scottmorrison4cook\/\">Scott Morrison (ScoMo)\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>CANBERRA, Australia \u2014 An Australian student was released Thursday after a week in detention in North Korea and was \u201csafe and well\u201d in a third country, Australia&#8217;s prime minister said.<\/p>\n<p>Swedish diplomats had raised Alek Sigley, 29, with North Korean authorities in Pyongyang where Australia does not have an embassy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m pleased to announce that Mr. Alex Sigley has been today released from detention in the Democratic People&#8217;s Republic of Korea,\u201d Scott Morrison told Parliament to cheers from lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlex is safe and well. Swedish authorities advised the Australian government that they met with senior officials from the DPRK yesterday and raised the issue of Alex&#8217;s disappearance on Australia&#8217;s behalf,\u201d he added, using the official name for North Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Morrison said that North Korean authorities released Sigley early Thursday, \u201cand he has now safely left the country and I can confirm he has arrived safely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morrison thanked Swedish authorities for \u201ctheir invaluable assistance in securing Alek&#8217;s prompt release.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis outcome demonstrates the value of discrete behind-the-scenes work of officials in resolving complex and sensitive consular cases in close partnership with other governments,\u201d Morrison said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m sure we all could not be more pleased that we not only know where Alek is, that we know he is safe,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pyongyang university student lost contact with family and friends in Japan and Australia on Tuesday last week.<\/p>\n<p>Morrison&#8217;s announcement was the first confirmation that he had been detained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CANBERRA, Australia \u2014 An Australian student was released Thursday after a week in detention in North Korea and was \u201csafe &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":221484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221482","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\/221482","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=221482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221486,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221482\/revisions\/221486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}