Hyeonseo Lee

Activist
The Guardian: How I escaped from North Korea Why I fled North Korea
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee thought her country was the "best on the planet." It wasn't until the famine of the 90s that she began to wonder. She escaped the country at 17-years-old to begin a life in hiding as a refugee in China. Hers is a harrowing, personal tale of survival and hope — and a powerful reminder of those who face constant danger, even when the border is far behind.

Why you should listen

Hyeonseo Lee grew up in North Korea but escaped to China in 1997. In 2008, when she was 28-years-old, she came to Seoul, South Korea, where she struggled to adjust to life in the bustling city. North Korean defectors often have a hard time in South Korea, she noted in the Wall Street Journal: "We defectors have to start from scratch. Prejudice against North Koreans and icy stares were other obstacles that were hard to cope with."

Now a student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, she has become an advocate for fellow refugees, even helping close relatives leave North Korea after they were targeted. Her dream? As she told the Korea Times, she'd like to work at the UN or an NGO that advocates for the human rights of North Koreans, including their right to be treated as political refugees. She is the author of The Girl with Seven Names.

What others say

“The most riveting TED Talk ever." -- Oprah in Oprah Magazine” —

Hyeonseo Lee’s TED talk

11:54

Hyeonseo Lee

My escape from North Korea

Posted Mar 2013

More news and ideas from Hyeonseo Lee

Global Issues

TED Weekends says freedom is only half the battle

June 30, 2013

Hyeonseo Lee’s story is a tale bound to pull at your heartstrings. She’s a North Korean refugee — and while helping her family flee the country in 2009, Lee’s mother and brother were detained in a Laos prison.  At TED2013, Lee described how it was an enormously generous gift from a stranger that helped her […]

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News

Your weekend reading: The wrong kind of Caucasian, the graduate school question, and how the Internet ruined everything

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