By Alix Culbertson, news reporter

North Korea is not on the top of most people's "must visit" lists, but for one Australian it was worth spending two years convincing a Pyongyang university to accept him as a student.

Alek Sigley started a masters degree in North Korean literature in April at Kim Il Sung University where he is just one of three western students.

Image: Alek (left) with western foreign students Howard (middle) and Erik (right). Pic: Alek Sigley

The 29-year-old, from Perth, Western Australia, has access to the closed-off country that not even foreign diplomats and aid workers are allowed - including being able to interact with local students.

He even had his wedding ceremony in Pyongyang this summer.


Alek spoke to Sky News about his life in the most secretive nation in the world.

Why North Korea?

Alek has always been interested in east Asia, having grown up with a sinologist (China studying) father and also being part Chinese.

It was while studying in China that he met some South Korean students who piqued his interest in the Korean peninsula and he decided to study Korean, which led to meeting some North Korean students on exchange in China.

Image: The view from Alek's dorm room. Pic: Alek Sigley

After two-and-a-half years studying the language and literature in South Korea, he became interested in North Korean film and literature so thought he could maybe do his masters at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang.

North Korea does accept tourists, but they have to go through a tour agency - so after going in 2012 with an agency Alek decided in 2013 to set up his own: Tongil Tours.

Image: Kim Il Sung University in the snow. Pic: Alek Sigley

That helped him get onto his university course, but it still was not easy as it is only in the past four years that western students have been allowed to study there.

"It took about two years of nagging and emailing and back and forth. They have to trust you and know you, the tour company did help, and I'd been to the country more than 10 times," he said.

'Is Australia a one-party state?'

When Alek first arrived he was placed in a dormitory room with a North Korean student who had never been out of the country.

"When I first met him - this left quite a deep impression on me - he asked if Australia is a one-party state," he said.

"I had to explain to him that we have a system that's kind of similar to the UK and we have two main parties - the real basics of our political system.

Image: Alek's dorm at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. Pic: Alek Sigley

"I could see that the North Koreans are curious, and having this opportunity is just as interesting for them as it was for me.

"My roommate and I talked a fair bit and I think by the end of the four months together we'd become quite good friends.

"I was quite sad when he left. And there was no way of contacting him, but he certainly learnt a fair bit about Australia from me."



Bollywood films and no local internet

Alek explained that everyone has a mobile phone but foreigners are on a completely separate network to locals, and can only call other foreigners or make international calls.

Foreigners are allowed to access the regular internet, and get around blocked websites using a VPN - like in China.

But locals cannot use the internet at all; they have a type of intranet with a few government-selected websites on it but they certainly could not access something like Sky News.

Image: A North Korean restaurant. Pic: Alek Sigley

Alek's roommate used to turn on his cellular data every morning to download the latest version of Rodong Sinmun, the state-run newspaper.

North Koreans can also stream music, films and TV shows on their smartphones, he said, with a surprising array of foreign films - pre-approved - becoming popular.

Image: Swedish student Erik with two Chinese students. Pic: Alek Sigley

"There's movies from East Germany, from the Soviet Union," he said.

"But there's also more recent stuff, a lot of Chinese stuff. Ip Man, a 2008 kung fu movie from Hong Kong, is really popular.

"Even Bollywood, there's a fantasy epic film called Bahubali, it was shown at the Pyongyang International Film Festival and an official DVD came out - it's really popular."

Image: The North Korean newspapers the day after the US-North Korea summit. Pic: Alek Sigley

In 2014 Alek was asked by the film festival committee to get a film they could show, so he got an Australian director to agree to show his independent film, after it was approved.

"It was on the dark side and a bit gory in parts, there were racial references in parts. It was interesting to see how they reacted.

"The audience was really captivated, the way they reacted to some scenes, when there was a corpse on the screen everyone would gasp at the same time."



Foreign students have the most freedom

There have been several terrible incidents with foreigners in North Korea in recent years, including US student Otto Warmbier's detention for taking a propaganda poster, then his death.

But Alek says he is not concerned about the North Korean government monitoring him because he is sensible about what he posts online and tries to stay out of trouble.

"I've read up on all these cases in detail and it's part of my job as a tour guide to understand the culture," he said.

"I've never felt threatened and this whole year has been a period of rapprochement.

"But, talking to students who were here last year when things were really bad and lots of threats were traded, it was totally life as normal."

As a student, Alek is allowed more freedom than other foreigners

Image: Foreign students are the only foreigners that can use the Pyongyang Metro. Pic: Alek Sigley

He is able to use the Metro - which he describes as cheap, clean and efficient - and taxis, which other foreigners living there are not allowed to hail without an accompanying Korean.

Tourists have to do whatever is on their plan and cannot visit most restaurants and shops, but foreigners living there can.

However, they are not allowed to visit the homes of North Koreans, which makes it "quite difficult to befriend people", Alek added.



Adidas, New Zealand beef and sanctions

The North Korean students at Kim Il Sung University are "pretty well off", Alek said.

His roommate had Chanel Bleu perfume and there are a few shops in Pyongyang selling luxury goods, at three times the normal price, but locals still buy them.

Image: A North Korean restaurant. Pic: Alek Sigley

"Pyongyang is actually doing pretty well, despite the sanctions being the toughest they've ever been in history.

"Every block has at least one little shop that has imported goods, lots of Chinese, but also Japanese, some eastern European stuff and German.

"You can get everything from New Zealand beef to a big selection of Haribo. I've even found milk from Victoria in Australia.

"Lots of places are selling Adidas which seems to have quite a big recognition here."

Image: Alek found this 7UP-style drink at his dormitory. Pic: Alek Sigley

He and the other foreign students, Erik who is Swedish and Howard who is South Korean-Canadian, have to go to several shops to cook western food, but they do eventually manage to get everything.

Locals get free ration coupons from their "work units" and Alek often sees them queuing outside specific shops to pick up items such as eggs, chicken and rice.

But Alek believes the market economy is taking more of a role now, especially in restaurants where you can pay in foreign currency.

Image: The gym in Alek's dormitory. Pic: Alek Sigley

"There's a lot of business, especially with China, which has helped carry the economy and led to a burgeoning almost middle-class in Pyongyang.

"In our neighbourhood there are lots of restaurants which are really good and packed with people.

"Most shops will accept you as a foreigner, but some restaurants won't which is annoying because some of my Korean friends say 'there's this really good place', but they won't accept foreigners.

"We do try to ask, but they say you're meant to have a coupon or say 'this is for the people' - whatever that means, the Korean masses."



Being the teachers' first western student

"The teachers are fascinated by me," Alek said.

"They're always asking me questions about Australia and Japan, because I come to Japan because my wife's there.

"They told me 'we've had a fair few students from China but this is the first time I've been able to teach a western student'. They have just as many questions for me as I do have for them.

"The teachers are super nice and friendly, I love taking classes there, it's really interesting."

Image: Alek's North Korean teacher writes on a blackboard with pictures of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il above. Pic: Alek Sigley



Getting married in Pyongyang

Alek got married to his wife, Yuka, in Pyongyang in May in front of his parents and 20 friends who came over for it, but since then has been doing long-distance.

He arranged for them all to come in through his company Tongil Tours, as they could not get into North Korea without being on a tour.

But because his wife is Japanese it is difficult for her to come and visit more.

Image: Alek and his wife, Yuka, on their wedding day in Pyongyang. Pic: Alek Sigley

"We're trying to set up for my wife to come and visit but it's hard, especially because she's a Japanese citizen and it's much harder for Japanese and US citizens.

"She's visited as a tourist on some of my tours.

"For our wedding my parents came but Japanese people are much more scared to come to visit North Korea so unfortunately her parents didn't come but we had about 20 friends.

"It was pretty lavish and we hired a local video company to produce the video."



North Korean romance novels...

For his thesis, Alek is studying North Korean romance novels, which he says have a very strong "collective" theme.

"They're quite different because the love between a man and a woman is often subordinated to some greater obligation, that one has to serve the fatherland or to dedicate one's life to serving the party, the collective.

"That's a strong theme - before you think of yourself as an individual think about the collective, the people.

Image: The two other foreign students, Howard (left) and Erik (right). Pic: Alek Sigley

"The characters, when they get together, it's usually when one sees that the other has a selfless spirit and dedicates themselves to helping the community, the people as a whole and then they fall in love.

"It's like a parable, there's lots of moral stuff, how to behave, and a lot of novels about war."

Alek can be found tweeting @AlekSigley and you can find out more about his tours here.