Alek Sigley: who is the Australian being held in North Korea?

The 29-year-old student in Pyongyang has
not been heard from since Tuesday

In Depth

Alek Sigley, a 29-year-old student living in Pyongyang, has
reportedly not been heard from for almost three days. “Alek has not
been in digital contact with friends and family since Tuesday
morning Australian time, which is unusual for him,” said a
statement released by his family. 

Australian officials have been trying to confirm whether he has
been arrested or if there is some other explanation for his
disappearance.

Who is Alek Sigley?

Sigley, from Perth, is a postgraduate student at Kim Il Sung
University in Pyongyang who is studying for a master’s in
Korean literature. He has travelled to North Korea several
times since 2014, according to his family.

The BBC says it is “rare but not unheard of” for students
to attend North Korean universities, citing reports that the
Chinese government offers 60 international students full
scholarships to North Korean universities each year.

Sigley reportedly married his Japanese wife last year in the
city, and also owns and runs a tour company in the North Korean
capital, CBS News says. He speaks Korean and
Mandarin fluently as well as some Japanese, the news site adds.

Writing frequently about his experiences in Pyongyang, he
recently penned an article in The Guardian in which he said he was “free to
wander around the city, without anyone accompanying me”,
adding that he had “nearly unprecedented access” to the
country, where foreigners are usually constantly tracked and not
allowed to stray from pre-designated tour itineraries.

What has happened?

After becoming uncontactable by his family and friends, he was
identified in South Korean media as having been taken into custody
by North Korean officials. News agencies in South Korea have not
revealed evidence as to how they came to this conclusion.

In response, the Australian foreign ministry said in a statement
that it was providing consular assistance to “the family of an
Australian man who has been reported as detained in North Korea”
and are “seeking to confirm his whereabouts and welfare”.

“Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further
comment,” it added.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Australia
does not have an embassy or consulate in North Korea, and consular
assistance is instead being provided by Sweden, which does have an
embassy in Pyongyang.

A spokesperson for the Swedish foreign ministry told the paper
that Sweden “is aware of the matter and is dealing with it within
the framework of our bilateral agreement with Australia”.

Leonid Petrov, a friend of Sigley’s who is a North Korea
expert at the Australian National University, told The Sydney Morning Herald that he was
“surprised at how open [Sigley] was on social media”, and
that “potentially that might have led to the situation he is
now in”.

What happens to foreigners detained in North Korea?

Dozens of foreigners have previously been detained in North
Korea, “sometimes for illegally entering the country” or for what
Pyongyang terms “hostile criminal acts against the state”, the BBC
says.

Most of the detainees have since been released after serving
time in North Korea’s prison camps. Diplomatic intervention from
the national’s home country is often necessary.

The most famous case is arguably that of US student Otto
Warmbier, who was detained at Pyongyang airport in 2016 after
stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel during an organised
tour.

Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour after a court
found him guilty of “crimes against the state”. He spent 17
months in detention before being returned to the US in a coma, with
North Korean officials claiming it was the result of botulism, a
deadly condition caused by bacteria.

He died days later, with his parents insisting his
death was the consequence of torture.