North Korea scholar Andrei Lankov was detained in Latvia and expelled from the country on Tuesday, just before the start of a public lecture in Riga.

Lankov, a Russian and Australian national, confirmed his detention to NK News.

“About thirty minutes before the event, police and immigration came and told me that the foreign ministry of Latvia included me on its list of undesirable people,” he said.

Lankov is a long-time contributor to NK News and serves as a director of Korea Risk Group, the parent company of NK News and NK Pro.

The scholar said police officers took him to an immigration office. He was then placed in a car that took him to the border with Estonia and expelled from the country.

While Latvian authorities haven’t clarified the reason for Lankov’s deportation, the scholar suggested it may be related to his views on North Korea.

“I believe they see my writing style as excessively objective and they see it as a problem,” he said. “I say positive things about North Korea sometimes, and when negative, not in a hysterical style.”

The Latvian Foreign Ministry confirmed to NK News that Lankov was placed on the country’s personae non gratae list “based on the information at the disposal of national security authorities.”

“The ban on entering the Republic of Latvia is imposed on the said person for an indefinite period of time,” it added.

The ministry referred to a section of the country’s Immigration Law that authorizes the foreign minister to determine whether a “third-country national is an undesirable person for the Republic of Latvia (persona non grata).”

Lankov clarified on his Telegram that he was “permanently expelled from Latvia,” with authorities failing to present any explanation of the reasons for this action to him and his lawyers.

The Russian Anti-War Committee later cited Lankov’s lawyer as stating that Latvia blacklisted him on Friday. It said the designation didn’t prevent him from entering the country.

“Overall everything is fairly clear. The authorities do not like the fact that I refuse to turn real-life situations into politically convenient caricatures,” he stated in a post.

A professor at Kukmin University in Seoul, Lankov announced a lecture tour in Europe several days ago on his Telegram channel. His next event is scheduled for Wednesday in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

The Korea specialist previously faced a fine in Russia over his “activities” in an “undesirable organization.” While Russian authorities did not specify the organization, media reports suggested the fine pertained to Lankov’s work with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a U.S.-based think tank.

In his most recent column for NK News, Lankov wrote that North Korea’s position is now more secure thanks to Russian and Chinese support, suggesting the world must abandon the “long-obsolete pipe dream of denuclearization.”

Chad O’Carroll contributed reporting to this story. Edited by Bryan Betts

Updated at 11:25 p.m. KST on Feb. 25 with additional details and on Feb. 26 at 11:10 a.m. KST with Latvia’s foreign ministry statement