Lee Hyeon-seo

Lee Hyeon-seo (, born January 1980), She escaped from North Korea and later guided her family out of North Korea through China and Laos.

Early life in North Korea Lee Hyeon-seo grew up in Hyesan, North Korea. Lee explained in her TED talk in February 2013 that "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 seven years old, I saw my first public execution." Her family was not poor, but after the North Korean famine struck in the 1990s, she witnessed much suffering and death.

Escape China In 1997, Lee crossed the frozen Yalu River alone in collusion with a friendly border guard to fulfill a dream she had, only planning to stay a short while before returning. However, due to complications with the North Korean security police, she had to live with relatives in China as an illegal immigrant. She managed to buy the identity of a mentally challenged girl from Heilongjiang, and with it, obtained a passport and driver's license. At one point, after being accused of being North Korean, she was interrogated by police and tested on her Chinese and her knowledge of China. Because of her father's insistence from her childhood days that she learn Chinese, she passed the test.

South Korea After 10 years of being a fugitive in China, Lee managed to escape to South Korea.

She was put through an orientation course for life in South Korea, and then given a house to live in. She "started out with mixed feelings of fear and excitement, but settling down turned out to be far more challenging than I had expected. I realized there was a wide gap between North and South, ranging from educational background to cultural and linguistic differences. We are a racially homogeneous people on the outside, but inside we have become very different as a result of the 67 years of division."

In 2022, the parents of Otto Warmbier awarded a scholarship named after their son to Lee.

Activist work Lee spoke about her experiences at a TED conference in Long Beach, California, in February 2013. The YouTube video of her talk has received over 21 million views.

In May 2013, Lee appeared on an Australian TV program on which she was reunited with the stranger who had helped her in Vientiane in 2009, Australian Dick Stolp. "I was really happy", said Lee. "He says, 'I'm not a hero', but I say he is a modern hero." Stolp said: "You help a small hand and it reaches to other hands and you think, 'That's great, that's good stuff.' ... I'm meeting someone who is now doing good things, and inside I can't help but feel 'Hey! I helped this lady to go out and change her life.