A student who is believed to be the only Australian living in North Korea has been arrested there.

Alek Sigley is believed to be the only Australian living in North Korea. (Twitter)

The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that an Australian man has been detained in the repressive country.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance, in accordance with the Consular Services Charter, to the family of an Australian man who has been reported as being detained in North Korea," the department said in a statement.

"The Department is urgently seeking clarification. Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment."

That man is 29-year-old Alek Sigley, who is studying Korean Literature at Kim Il Sung University.

Mr Sigley is originally from Perth, but studied at Australian National University in Canberra before moving to China, and then North Korea.

He also runs a tour company that organises trips for foreign students.

Mr Sigley runs a Twitter account commenting on his life in North Korea, but has not posted a tweet since June 24.

A statement issued by Mr Sigley's family asked for privacy as they awaited news about their son.

They noted that it has not been confirmed that Mr Sigley has been detained in North Korea.

"The situation is that Alek has not been in digital contact with friends and family since Tuesday morning Australian time, which is unusual for him," a family spokesperson said.

"Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is therefore seeking to confirm his whereabouts and welfare."

"Alek’s family hope to re-establish contact with him soon."

What the politicians say

Attorney-General Christian Porter said Australian officials are trying to determine why he has been detained.

"It certainly is a very serious set of circumstances and obviously enormous empathy for the young man's family, who I understand are in Western Australia," he said.

"This particular jurisdiction, most Australians' common sense would tell them makes this a matter of the utmost seriousness."

Australia does not have an embassy in North Korea, complicating the process, according to frontbencher Mattias Cormann.

"There is obviously some complications in providing consular assistance into North Korea. We work through the Swedish government in North Korea," he told reporters.

"We are undertaking all the necessary steps to provide the appropriate support."

Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it was a challenge to deal with North Korea.

"It’s a regime that we, and other members of the international community, have asserted a very important, clear position in relation to denuclearisation and we will continue to do that," she told reporters in Adelaide.

"But our primary interest at this stage is obviously the safety and security of the Australian."

She would not comment on whether the arrest could have been politically motivated.

"Look it’s not helpful, I think, in these circumstances, for someone like myself to be drawn into that sort of commentary."

What Alek Sigley was doing in North Korea

Just this week the 29-year-old posted photos of himself wearing a North Korean soccer kit, customised to bear his name.

In the past week he posted photographs of Pyongyang cuisine, and boasted of eating bear, wild boar and donkey.

Australia does not have an embassy in North Korea, but it has been reported that the British ambassador is handling the case.

Alek Sigley runs a tour company taking foreign students through North Korea. (Twitter)

In an article in The Guardian earlier this year, Mr Sigley wrote about the freedom he experiences as a foreigner in the country.

"As a long-term foreign resident on a student visa, I have nearly unprecedented access to Pyongyang," he wrote.

"I'm free to wander around the city, without anyone accompanying me. Interaction with locals can be limited at times, but I can shop and dine almost anywhere I want."

In a blog named From Perth to Pyongyang, Mr Sigley wrote that he always had a strong interest in East Asia.

Alek Sigley married a Japanese woman last year. (Facebook)

"My father is an Anglo-Aussie sinologist and my mother is Shanghainese," he wrote.

"I’ve also always been fascinated by socialism—my father, like many in the humanities and social sciences, has decidedly progressive political views, my mother spent a tumultuous youth during the Cultural Revolution, and my favorite class in high school was history, where I took a formative semester studying the Russian Revolution and early USSR."

He said he wanted to get out of Perth when he finished high school, referencing how Lonely Planet once described it as "Dullsville".

He married a Japanese woman named Yuka in North Korea last year.

"A Chinese-Australian man and a Japanese woman have their wedding in North Korea. My existence alone causes much confusion and I apologise if it has caused you any.

"At any rate I am very lucky to have a wife who not only tolerates but even encourages my zany interests. It’s being in a long-distance marriage which is the hardest part of living in Pyongyang for me."

He currently lives in the Foreign Student Dormitory at Kim Il Sung University, and is working on a thesis on contemporary North Korean fiction.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is meeting with President Donald Trump tonight, and North Korea is likely to be on the agenda.

It is not known if he will speak about Mr Sigley specifically.

Alek Sigley was arrested in North Korea. (Twitter)

What North Korean prisons are like

As perhaps the most oppressive dictatorship on Earth, North Korea is known for its harsh treatment of prisoners.

People who criticise the regime and their families are frequently sent to work camps where they are subject to hard labour, starvation, frequent beatings and rape, Amnesty International has said.

It is believed that hundreds of thousands of people, including children, are kept in these camps.

Read more: Thousands of North Korean women sold into sex slavery

How North Koreans treat foreign prisoners

US man Kenneth Bae was arrested in 2012 after Christian material was discovered on his hard drive during a visit to North Korea.

For the first four weeks of his imprisonment, he was interrogated for up to 13 hours a day.

Under these conditions, he wrote hundreds of pages of confessions.

He then spent six days a week shovelling coal and rocks for 10 hours, losing 27kg in the two years he was held a prisoner.

Dennis Rodman has met Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang during other trips. (Supplied)

He was released due to failing health in 2014, thanks largely to the advocacy of basketballer Dennis Rodman.

Compared to Otto Warmbier , Mr Bae got off easy.

The American tourist was arrested for stealing a poster in 2016.

Otto Warmbier bows his head in apology during a press conference after his arrest. (AAP)

He was tortured to the point of brain damage, and spent 17 months in a coma.

He died six days after he was returned to the US.