Beijing, Poilcenama Online : An Australian student, who was studying in North Korea, had reportedly been detained around June 23. 29-year-old Alek Sigley was on Thursday found at Beijing airport, saying he was in ‘very good’ spirits after being released.
For many days, Sigley’s family received no word about his whereabouts and hence feared that he may have been the latest in a long line of foreigners to become entangled in North Korea’s police state.
However, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that Sigley had ‘been released from detention in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’ and ‘he is safe and well’.
Sigley speaks fluent Korean and ran tours to North Korea and a number of social media sites, which usually had a stream of apolitical content about everyday life in one of the world’s most secretive nations. His blog focused on everyday life in Pyongyang.
His Japanese wife Yuka Moringa said, “He is always trying to demystify North Korea, unlike the typical Western media. He tries to understand the people there.”
Morrison thanked Sweden for its diplomatic help in securing Sigley’s release as the case was complicated by Australia’s lack of diplomatic representation in North Korea.
Swedish special envoy Kent Harstedt had travelled to Pyongyang, where he raised the issue with North Korean authorities.
“I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Swedish authorities for their invaluable assistance in securing Alek’s prompt release,” Morrison said. Sigley is now at the Australian embassy in Beijing and is going to visit his wife in Japan.