Hyeonseo Lee is a student, activist, and ;North Korean defector. Born in North Korea, Lee escaped to China in 1997, and lived there alone for more than 10 years before defecting to South Korea. After the difficult adjustment to life in South Korea, she returned to North Korea to help her family escape, miraculously guiding them through China to southeast Asia. Despite being captured and detained in Laos, they finally made it to South Korea. Lee is currently studying Chinese at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and works as a student journalist with the Ministry of Unification.