SYDNEY: Australia said it was “urgently seeking clarification” on Thursday on the fate of a 29-year-old tour guide and student feared detained in North Korea.

Alek Sigley — who speaks fluent Korean and is one of only a handful of Western students living in Pyongyang — is believed to have been detained sometime in the last three days.

In a statement, Sigley’s family said there was no confirmation yet that he had been arrested. “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 said.

Sigley, from Perth in Western Australia, had been studying Korean literature at Kim II Sung University since 2018, while running a company specialising in tours of North Korea. He married a Japanese woman in a ceremony in Pyongyang last year.

Sigley has written various blog posts and articles about everyday life in Pyongyang — focusing on everything from the city’s dining scene to North Korean app reviews and steering well clear of sensitive political issues.

Canberra said it was “urgently seeking clarification” on a man “who has been reported as being detained in North Korea”.

Australia has no diplomatic mission of its own in Pyongyang and is represented in North Korea by the Swedish embassy.

The vast majority of foreign students in North Korea come from China, where education is significantly more expensive.

The son of an anglo-Australian man and Chinese mother, he previously studied at Fudan University in Shanghai and in South Korea before moving to Pyongyang, according to his post.

“I’m enrolled in a master’s degree in Korean literature in the university’s postgraduate school. Because I am the only foreign student in this particular programme, my courses are all conducted one-on-one with the teacher,” he wrote.

In contrast to popular perceptions about Pyongyang, Sigley described a life chatting with Chinese exchange students, drinking with Russian students and playing video games and going to restaurants with students from Canada and Sweden.

In an article for the Guardian newspaper published in late March, Sigley said he had “nearly unprecedented access” to Pyongyang as a long-term foreign resident.

“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.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2019