Like many Australians, I have feared the worst after hearing of the disappearance of Alex Sigley, Australian student and tour operator living in North Korea. The frightening nature of the situation is that in Australia we simply can’t know what has occurred in the mysterious, secretive and tyrannical communist state.

The story of Otto Warmbier, the American studying in North Korea arrested for allegedly stealing a poster, comes to mind. The regime’s brutal and irreparable torture that resulted in him falling into a coma and dying horrified the world and is a taste of what “disappearing” in North Korea can entail.

Sigley, as indicated by Perth USAsia Centre chief executive and Korean expert Gordon Flake, could be alive and well and we should not jump to conclusions.

“For the 30 years that I have been following North Korea, there’s a long list of people who had been reported to have been executed, or exiled, or sent down to the farm, who have subsequently reappeared,” he said.

For many sympathisers of the North Korean regime or those who regard it a curiosity, however, this should be a wakeup call. The story may not necessarily be one of death and torture but the reality of uncertainty and endless possibilities.

If you were to disappear it’s entirely possible that you could be executed, exiled, or sent to a labour camp or farm, and no one would be any the wiser. The Australian government won’t be able to help you and your friends and family will never know what happened.

It’s simply too hard to say whether a missing person will appear again tortured and damaged or whether they just went off-grid for a couple of days.

Familiarity of Sigley’s position led me back to an opinion article he wrote for the Guardian just a few months ago “I’m the only Australian living in North Korea. Let me tell you about it”.

In the article, Sigley spoke of his interest in socialism “ever since studying the Russian Revolution” and how he was intrigued by North Korean students’ lapel pins depicting national leaders. Of all events to spark an interest in socialism, it’s no irony lost that it began with the beginnings of the intensely tyrannical and murderous Soviet Union.

Sigley remarked of the economic progress of the nation, from fashion and fast food to technological advancement, quickly glossing over the fact that “meeting locals without an express reason is generally frowned upon” and the blatant propaganda of rockets and Pyongyang monuments adorning notebook covers.

Also glossed over was that despite the apparent wealth of Pyongyang residents, this is not reflective of the country as a whole. There’s 40 per cent of the country in desperate need of food aid that can only be provided through the kindness of other countries, including the “imperialist” United States.

I hope that Sigley is quickly found to be alive and well, but this entire affair shows that socialism is no utopia. Socialism is your family back home in Perth not knowing if you’re alive or dead, it’s the glorification of military parades and it’s the centralisation of all wealth and success within the boundaries of middle-class Pyongyang.

More and more people in Western countries are glorifying an ideology that, when not tempered by capitalism and individual rights, has led to the starvation and persecution of millions. These people must come to terms with the reality of socialist countries or will be sorely disappointed by these authoritarian regimes.

Living in denial of the horrors perpetrated by the Soviet Union, Communist China or indeed North Korea, is living in denial of the frantic and desperate attempts of family unable to ascertain the wellbeing of a loved one.

Think you want socialism? There’s an East-Asian country waiting for you to come try it out.

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