Hyeonseo Lee

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de diciembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

Visitors wearing traditional Korean “hanbok” dresses pose for photos at Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea. Credit Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Turning Point: North and South Korean athletes march under a unified flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Growing up in North Korea in the 1980s, I was brainwashed into believing that South Koreans were suffering horribly under their government, but that with the unconditional support of the North Korean people, our “Dear Leader” Kim Il-sung would liberate our southern neighbors and reunify the Korean Peninsula. I eventually escaped my homeland as a teenager and learned the harsh truth, yet I still hold on to a sliver of hope that I will one day live in a united and free Korea.…  Seguir leyendo »

Life as a North Korean Refugee

For years, thousands of North Koreans have been sneaking across the border into China to escape oppression. The Chinese authorities routinely hunt down defectors and return them to North Korea, where they face torture, forced labor, life in a prison camp or even public execution.

This past year much has been written about the people fleeing the Middle East for Europe. The world should also pay attention to the North Korean refugee crisis, and to the desperation that drives it. North Koreans are forced to work at state jobs in a moribund economy. Countless parents watch their children go to bed hungry.…  Seguir leyendo »

North Korean Truths

North Korean defectors can usually tell when other defectors are lying about their past. As a panelist on a South Korean talk show that features female defectors like me, I heard other panelists complain privately that a few of the guests must have been embellishing their stories.

It’s not uncommon to hear defectors claim they graduated from a prestigious North Korean university, for example, while the rest of the details of their lives suggest this was highly unlikely. If defectors say they had high-level connections in Pyongyang or came from an esteemed institution in the North, they can gain better employment in the South, where life can be very difficult for North Koreans.…  Seguir leyendo »

When I was young, I thought my country was the best on the planet. I grew up singing a song called "Nothing to Envy." I felt very proud. I thought my life in North Korea was normal, even though when I was 7 years old, I saw my first public execution.

My family was not poor, and I had never experienced hunger. But after my mother read me a letter from a coworker's sister who said that her family was dying of hunger, I realized that something was very wrong in my country. A huge famine hit North Korea in the mid to late 1990s, and I began to see suffering, hunger and death around me.…  Seguir leyendo »