An Australian student who was detained in North Korea before being released earlier this week has been accused by the country's state media of spying.
Alek Sigley went missing last month before North Korean authorities U-turned and released him on Thursday. The 29-year-old flew to Japan where he has remained.
He had been studying at a Pyongyang university and guiding tours in the North Korean capital before disappearing from social media contact with family and friends.
Official North Korean news agency KCNA said Mr Sigley had admitted "he had been spying by collecting our internal information and sharing with others and repeatedly asked for our forgiveness for infringing on our sovereignty".
It did not say which country he was believed to be spying for or who he was providing information to.
"He honestly admitted his spying acts of systematically collecting and offering data about the domestic situation of the DPRK and repeatedly asked for pardon, apologising for encroachment upon the sovereignty of the DPRK," the agency said.
It said Mr Sigley – one of just a handful of Westerners living and studying in North Korea – had been detained on June 25 for promoting propaganda against the country online, including on specialist website NK News, which rejected the accusations.
"Sigley, upon request by anti-DPRK news outlets such as NK News, on numerous occasions transferred information that he gathered while travelling to every corner of Pyongyang using his status as an international student, including photographs and analysis," it said, using the initials of North Korea's official name.
"The government of DPRK has exercised humanitarian forbearance and deported him from our grounds on July 4."
Mr Sigley's detention came just days before a G20 summit and a landmark meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Mr Trump was closely involved in the case of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned during a tour of the authoritarian state in 2016.
Doctors said Warmbier suffered severe brain damage while in detention, fell into a coma and died days after arriving back in the United States, aged 22.
Mr Sigley was much more familiar with the country and spoke fluent Korean.
He organised tours to North Korea, and ran a number of social media sites, which usually had a stream of apolitical content about life in one of the world's most secretive nations.
His blog posts focused on everyday Pyongyang – everything from the city's dining scene to North Korean app reviews – and he married his Japanese wife there last year.
On Friday, Mr Sigley said he was planning to "return to normal life" but offered no details of his detention, adding he would not be conducting any interviews or holding a press conference.
"I just want everyone to know I am OK, and to thank them for their concern for my wellbeing and their support for my family over the past week," he said in a statement released by representatives of his family on Friday.
However Mr Sigley gave no indication of why he was held, how he was treated or why he was released. It said he would not make any further comment "at this time or later".
The case was also complicated by Australia's lack of diplomatic representation in North Korea.
Mr Sigley specifically thanked Sweden's envoy to North Korea, who helped negotiate his release.