TOKYO: A 29-year-old Australian student held in North Korea said yesterday he was planning to “return to normal life” after being freed and flying to Japan but offered no details of his detention.
Alek Sigley, who disappeared without a trace around June 23 prompting a week of deep concern about his fate, said he was “okay” but declined to disclose why he was held and how he was treated.
Sigley, one of just a handful of Westerners living and studying in North Korea, emerged suddenly in Beijing on Thursday afternoon, where he told reporters he felt “great”.
Hours later, he flew to Tokyo where his wife lives, declining to answer questions on his arrival but smiling broadly as he walked through the airport.
A statement released by representatives of his family yesterday said he had been reunited with his wife Yuka and would not be conducting any interviews or holding a press conference.
Sigley specifically thanked Sweden’s envoy to North Korea, who helped negotiate his release because Australia does not have diplomatic representation in Pyongyang.
But the statement gave no indication of why Sigley was held, how he was treated or why he was released. It said he would not make any further comment “at this time or later”.
Sigley’s release was announced on Thursday by Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who told lawmakers the student was “safe and well” after his release.
Yesterday Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton cautioned him against returning to the isolated North.
The Australian’s detention came just days before a G20 summit and a landmark meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump was intimately involved in the case of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned during a tour of the authoritarian state in 2016. – AFP
