Australian student Alek Sigley vanishes in North Korea after being detained
Friends of Australian student Alek Sigley have told of their shock as Australian diplomats urgently try to confirm what has happened to him after he was reportedly detained in North Korea.
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Australian diplomats are frantically trying to confirm what’s happened to ANU student Alek Sigley, after he vanished in North Korea after blogging about his experience inside the regime.
It’s believed Mr Sigley, 29, was arrested at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, where he is currently studying for a masters in Korean literature.
News Corp Australia understands Australian authorities are currently trying to contact Mr Sigley, who grew up in Perth and recently graduated from Canberra’s Australian National University.
Authorities have not yet been able to confirm if he was arrested, he has not replied to messages from friends or family since Tuesday.
Mr Sigley claims to be the first Australian student to have studied in North Korea.
He also got married there and runs an inbound tour company, Tongil Tours, which he founded in 2013.
A family spokesperson said it has not been confirmed whether Mr Sigley has been detained in the DPRK.
“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,” the statement read.
“Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is therefore seeking to confirm his whereabouts and welfare.
“He first visited the DPRK in 2014 and has travelled there several times. Alek’s family hope to re-establish contact with him soon.”
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed this morning officials are providing consular assistance “to the family of an Australian man who has been reported as being detained in North Korea.”
“The Department is urgently seeking clarification,” a spokesman said.
“Owing to our privacy obligations we will not provide further comment.”
Senior government minister Mathias Cormann confirmed from Japan today that Australian diplomats in South Korea were working with “relevant officials in North Korea”.
He acknowledged there were complications in providing consular assistance in North Korea.
“We work through the Swedish Government in North Korea and all of these steps are underway,” Senator Cormann told reporters at the G20.
“There is obviously privacy considerations here and there is not really much more that we can say at this stage, other than that we are undertaking all of the necessary steps to provide the appropriate support.”
WILL MORRISON RAISE ISSUE WITH TRUMP?
The news comes ahead of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s face to face meeting with US President Donald Trump, prompting questions as to whether Mr Morrison would seek Mr Trump’s support in the case.
Asked whether Mr Morrison should raise the issue with Mr Trump during their meeting, Labor’s Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator Penny Wong said: “That’s a judgment the government needs to take.”
“If those sorts of conversatiuons help, then those conversations should be had,” Senator Wong told Sky News.
Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter said the reported detention is very serious and the case is being treated with the urgency it deserves.
“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,” Mr Porter told Perth radio station 6PR.
Mr Porter said Australian officials were working hard to determine the reason why Mr Sigley may have been detained.
“This particular jurisdiction, most Australians’ common sense would tell them makes this a matter of the utmost seriousness,” he said.
SIGLEY WAS READYING FOR AUGUST TOUR
Mr Sigley had been preparing to lead a fresh tour in August, promising travellers a visit to the demilitarised zone that divides North and South Korea.
“Get right up to the border with South Korea, even technically cross it in one of the negotiation huts which lie between the northern and southern sides of the compound and are bisected by the border,” his company’s website says.
A US based North Korea expert claims he was friends with Mr Sigley and they travelled together as part of a group to China and North Korea in 2012.
“For the 9 millionth time, my friends, please stop going to North Korea. You’re putting yourself in jeopardy every time you set foot on North Korean soil no matter how much they may seem to like you at first,” Benjamin R. Young wrote on Twitter in response to the news of Mr Sigley’s arrest.
Foreign policy analyst and author Crispin Rovere also claimed on Twitter he was friends with Mr Sigley.
“To be clear Alek Sigley is the nicest guy on Earth. Only ever interested in sharing North Korea’s culture with the world and improving people-to-people connections,” he wrote.
To be clear, Alek Sigley is the nicest guy on Earth. Only ever interested in sharing North Korea's culture with the world and improving people-to-people connections. #auspol https://t.co/RVIWGVL9L9
— Crispin Rovere (@crispinrovere) June 27, 2019
Sky News producer Trudy McIntosh, who went on a tour to North Korea with Mr Sigley in 2013 while they were at ANU, said she was shocked by the reports.
“Hopefully it’s not true, that he hasn’t been arrested and it’s just a misunderstanding,” Ms McIntosh said on Sky.
“From my knowledge of him, from when I knew him in 2013, he was always very respectful to the culture. He didn’t seem to be pushing the boundaries.”
She added: “From knowing Alek, he had a genuine passion for North Korea. He wanted to see the two Koreas reunited.”
“His company is called Tongil Tours. Tongil means reunification in Korean.”
Government travel site Smart Traveller currently advises Australians to reconsider travelling to North Korea.
“Due to the very different laws and regulations affecting foreign visitors and the risks from intermittent DPRK threats against international interests,” the website states.
“If you decide to travel despite the risks, stay as short a time as possible, eliminate unnecessary activities, and review your security arrangements.”
Mr Sigley holds a bachelors degree in philosophy and Asian Studies from Australian National University in Canberra. ANU confirmed he graduated in July 2018.
Acting Vice Chancellor Keith Nurgent said the university was aware of reports Mr Sigley had been detained.
“On behalf of the ANU community, I extend my concern and thoughts for his wellbeing, as well as to his family, his friends and colleagues. We hope for a speedy and positive resolution to his reported situation,” he said.
“Counselling services are available to ANU students and staff who may feel distress as a consequence of this news.”
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Mr Sigley was married in North Korea last May to a Japanese woman who had also studied at ANU.
It’s understood his wife lives in Japan and the pair had a long-distance relationship.
His mother is Chinese and his father is an Australian academic.
The family spokesperson said Mr Sigley speaks fluent Mandarin and Korean as well as some Japanese.
“Alek is an Australia-born Asian scholar and traveller who has visited, studied and lived in several countries in Asia,” a family statement read.
SIGLEY’S LAST TWEET WAS THREE DAYS AGO
Up until June 24, Mr Sigley regularly tweeted updates on his life in Pyongyang, sharing photos and comments on food, clothing, sports and people he’d met.
This is despite Twitter being blocked in North Korea since 2016.
Anyone trying to access it, including foreign visitors, can be subject to punishment.
Mr Sigley was careful to avoid political commentary on social media, instead focusing on what he called North Korea’s modernisation.
Last week he shared photos of himself in a North Korean football uniform.
South Korean and Japanese media reportedly named Mr Sigley as the “recently arrested” man and said the British Embassy in Pyongyang was “handling the case.”
The British Embassy has been contacted for comment.
In 2016, Mr Sigley wrote a blog for the Huffington Post where he claimed he was “the first Australian to study in a North Korean university.”
He wrote “getting there wasn’t easy” as he was unable to use official exchange programs used by most foreign students in North Korea.
“It has been only in the past few years that Westerners have studied in North Korea,” he wrote.
“Using connections I had developed through running Tongil Tours … I was able to arrange for myself and two other students — one from France and one from the US — to study Korean at Kim Hyong Jik University for three weeks during the Korean summer in July and August (2016),” he wrote.
On March 31 this year The Guardian published an opinion piece by Mr Sigley where he further detailed his time in Pyongyang.
“As a long-term foreign resident on a student visa, I have nearly unprecedented access to Pyongyang. 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,” he wrote.
The reports of the arrest come as US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are expected to arrange a third summit.
The pair have held talks twice before, the last being in Vietnam where the meeting collapsed without any nuclear agreement.
Trump and Kim recently exchanged letters but the content has not been made known.
WESTERNERS DETAINED IN NORTH KOREA
A number of Westerners have faced North Korea’s harsh justice system over the years.
US citizen Otto Warmbier was among the most shocking cases in recent times.
In 2016, Mr Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years for committing a “hostile act” against the reclusive state.
In a tearful apology, he confessed in front of cameras to stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel.
Seventeen months later, he was released in a vegetative state and flown back to the US and died six days later when his parents asked to have his feeding tube removed.
North Korea claimed Mr Warmbier had contracted botulism and slipped into a coma, but a coroner’s report noted his state was caused by an unknown injury causing oxygen starvation to the brain.
South Korean-born Canadian citizen Hyeon Soo Lim was sentenced in 2016 for crimes against the North Korean regime.
Mr Lim had visited North Korea more than 100 times, and was undertaking humanitarian work — sending tonnes of food and tens of thousands of essential items into the country.
He was released in 2017 after a Canadian delegation visited the country.
And in 2014, Australian Christian missionary John Short spent 13 days in detention after distributing pamphlets on Christianity in Pyongyang.
North Korea’s state media aired footage of Mr Short apologising and later released him.
He said he was interrogated for four hours a day during his detention, and kept under 24-hour guard.
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