Also taken by surprise was the North Korean embassy in Jakarta, who when contacted by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age about a missing Australian student, replied: "You mean Alek? Nobody in the compound knows. This is propaganda." The Jakarta embassy often handles Australian visa requests to travel to North Korea. Sigley ran a tour company, Tongil Tours, which translates as Unification Tours. The international students dormitory at Kim Il-sung University in North Korea as posted by Alek Sigley on his Tongil Tours blog. According to the June 25 edition of Rodong Sinmum, "The President of the Australia's Unification Tours who visited our country said that DPRK is a very fascinating country and that there is no other country like DPRK in the world. He said, in fact, to visit and to see is the most important way to break the negative perception of the country." Sigley was a frequent visitor to North Korea over the past five years after setting up his tour company. He tried to promote student tours and tours for ANU scholars, said Petrov.

Loading Petrov said Sigley was awarded a New Colombo Plan scholarship to study in South Korea in 2016, during which time he visited North Korea several times. The student program was set up by former foreign minister Julie Bishop to send Australian students out into Asia. He started his master's at North Korea's most prestigious university in April last year, a few months after the scholarship ended. "He concluded his studies in January 2018," a DFAT spokesperson said of the scholarship. It was ground-breaking for Sigley to be accepted by Kim Il-sung University as the first Australian student, Petrov said, because the institution had previously rejected approaches from Petrov to accept Australian students.

"It was quite sensational. Many students had wanted to study there before." "I had thought this was a significant improvement and a sign of the changing North Korea, and North Korea prioritising openness." "Alek was the people-to-people ambassador in North Korea." He was fluent in Korean. Petrov said Sigley may have been detained on his way home.

Loading "I was surprised at how open he was on social media. Potentially that might have led to the situation he is now in," he said. Petrov said the conditions of Sigley's detention were unlikely to be cause for concern, "but the gravity of the situation and the charges he is facing – that is the question." If it was over a visa error, this would be less serious, but a political charge would take longer and likely result in a trial, he said. "He was always very sympathetic to North Korea and the people of North Korea. He was very cautious in his statements in Australia, North Korea and South Korea. He was very diplomatic and sensible," said Petrov.

He married his Japanese girlfriend in North Korea around 18 months ago but she did not live there with him. Petrov said he feared there may be parallels with the case of Canadian man Michael Spavor, who was arrested in China in December. Like Sigley, Spavor ran tour groups into North Korea and was enthusiastic about the country. "This is the second case. It looks like people who deal with North Korea are of particular interest. There can be suspicions from both sides if they cross that line. You need to look at the situation through the prism of the continuing Korean peninsula conflict," he said. An American student, Otto Warmbier, was jailed in North Korea in 2016 and only released in a comatose state in 2017 and died soon after. Warmbier's release was negotiated by the Trump administration. But Warmbier's case was different to Sigley, in that Warmbier had been in North Korea for a short period as a tourist and was arrested on New Year's Day for trying to steal a propaganda poster in a hotel. Trump recently denied he approved a deal to pay $US2 million ($2.8 million) for Warmbier's release.