A 29-year-old Australian student Alek Sigley who was detained last week in North Korea has been released and is “safe and well”, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told parliament on Thursday.
News of Alek Sigley’s release comes more than a week after he went missing in Pyongyang.
“We were advised that the DPRK has released him from detention and he has safely left the country”, Scott Morrison said, while referring to the North by its official name.
Sigley, from Perth in Western Australia, had been studying Korean literature at Kim Il 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.
In a statement, Sigley’s family said there was no confirmation yet that he had been arrested last week.
“The situation is that Alek has not been in digital contact with friends and family since last Tuesday morning Australian time, which is unusual for him,” the statement added.
News of Sigley’s disappearance came just hours before Prime Minister Scott Morrison met US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.