N Korea accuses Sigley of espionage

NORTH Korea has accused Australian Alek Sigley of spying and spreading propaganda after releasing the student from detention.

Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said North Korea deported the 29-year-old after he pleaded for forgiveness over his activities.

Mr Sigley arrived in Tokyo on Thursday, having earlier told reporters he was in “very good” condition, but he did not reveal what happened to him.

He had been studying at a Pyongyang university and guiding tours in the North Korean capital before disappearing from social media contact with family and friends.

KCNA said Mr Sigley was caught “red-handed” abusing his status as a student.

The agency said he was combing through Pyongyang, providing photos and other information to news sites such as NK News and other antiDemocratic People’s Republic of Korea media.

However, NK News chief executive Chad O’Carroll dismissed claims Mr Sigley’s work amounted to espionage.

“Alek Sigley’s well-read columns presented an apolitical and insightful view of life in Pyongyang, which we published in a bid to show vignettes of ordinary daily life in the capital to our readers,” Mr O’Carroll said in a statement.

“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.”

KCNA said the North expelled Mr Sigley out of “humanitarian leniency”.

Mr Sigley was released by North Korea following intervention by Swedish diplomats.

After Mr Sigley’s departure from North Korea and arrival in Beijing, he flew to Tokyo to reunite with his Japanese wife, who he married in Pyongyang last year.