Australian student Alek Sigley was arrested in North Korea over spying charges, state media says

North Korea accused him of being caught 'red handed committing anti-DPRK incitement through internet.' 

An Australian student who was detained in North Korea was arrested on spying charges, the nation’s state-run news agency has said.

Alek Sigley, 29, went missing last week but was released and arrived in Beijing Airport on Thursday where he told reporters he felt ‘great’ and refused to comment on what had happened.

In a statement released shortly after his release, Mr Sigley refused to elaborate on why he had been detained, and said he wanted to return to a ‘normal life’ with his wife, Yuka.

But North Korea claimed he had been arrested after being caught ‘red handed committing anti-DPRK incitement through internet.’

A statement claimed an investigation had revealed that ‘at the instigation of the NK News and other anti-DPRK media’, Mr Sigley had been gathering sensitive data and pictures, during his time living in Pyongyang.

It added Mr Sigley had been offered ‘humanitarian leniency’ by being expelled from the country.

As a foreign student in the secretive nation, he had unprecedented access to the capital city and ran a blog which gave a rare glimpse into North Korea.

He wrote six articles for the news website NK News, an independent news organisation aiming to provide information about North Korea to English speaking readers.

The organisation’s CEO, Chad O’Carroll, denied Mr Sigley spied on the country and said the articles he wrote ‘presented an apolitical and insightful view of life in Pyongyang’.

Mr O’Carroll added: ‘The six articles Alek published represent the full extent of his work with us and the idea that those columns, published transparently under his name between January and April 2019, are “anti-state” in nature, is a misrepresentation which we reject.’

On his website, Mr Sigley said he would not discuss topics that may get him into trouble. He wrote: ‘Please note that because of my studies and work in-country, I generally steer clear of politically sensitive issues in my blog.

‘At any rate, I’m not particularly interested in saying what has already been said a thousand times before about North Korea.

‘In my blog I aim simply to present life in North Korea as I see and experience it.’

Mr Sigley was studying for a masters degree in Korean literature at the prestigious Kim Il Sung University and had been living in Pyongyang since April 2018.

He wrote about food and culture in the closed-off society, and was even allowed to set up a tourism company offering tours of Pyongyang and the DMZ to foreign tourists.

The Australian national, from Perth, was reported missing by his family after they did not hear from him for a number of days.

Before his arrival in China, Mr Sigley’s detention raised fears he could have faced the same treatment as Otto Warmbier, an American student who was arrested in 2017.

Mr Warmbier, 22, was detained at Pyongyang International Airport on suspicion of a ‘a hostile act against the state’ as he tried to return home.

At a trial – which was broadcast on state TV – Mr Warmbier admitted to attempting to steal a propaganda poster in the hotel where he was staying and sentenced to 15 years hard labour.

But 17 months later he was repatriated to the United States on June 13, 2018, in a comatose state, with North Korean authorities claiming he had contracted botulism shortly after being imprisoned.

However, medical tests done by American doctors provided no evidence to suggest there was any signs of botulism, or any physical abuse.

Mr Warmbier died six days after arriving in the United States, after his parents requested his feeding tube be removed.