Courtesy Photo | Lee So-yeon, a former North Korean soldier who defected to South Korea, will...... read more read more
CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea – Imagine waking up one day and realizing that life as you know it isn’t what it seems — that every rule you followed, every truth you were taught, and even the people you held in the highest regard were all part of a carefully constructed lie designed to keep you and your country’s people under control.
For Lee So-yeon, a former North Korean army sergeant, this was her reality.
After spending 10 years in the North Korean military, Lee was discharged and sent to work in the coal mines. With no tools, workers were forced to dig with their bare hands in horrific working conditions. The regime often promised the workers food but never delivered.
Lee began to realize things weren’t adding up.
“The hunger was unbearable,” Lee said through translator Lee Jeong-hwan, a language specialist at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, during an interview, May 28. “I was not properly paid when I was a soldier, and I was embarrassed to reveal that I could not eat for three days after being discharged.”
While working in the mines, Lee heard rumors some women were earning money by crossing the Yalu River and smuggling goods in from China. Desperate, she decided this was her only option if she wanted to provide for herself and her 6-year-old son. A few days later, Lee took her son to school and made plans to leave that night.
“After school, he ran up to me on the street,” Lee said through tears. “I said I would be back in two nights and that I would return with a lot of money and cook him a lot of food.”
As dusk settled and the night grew cold, Lee told her son to return home to his grandmother while she prepared to embark on her journey. It was 2006. This would be the last time she saw her son.
That night, as she tried to cross the river into China, North Korean soldiers apprehended Lee and sent her to a prison camp, where she was forced to work in even more demanding and grueling conditions than the coal mines. After two long years, she was released but her social status had been diminished. She couldn’t find work and was barred from contacting her mother and son.
Desperate, Lee decided to leave again with the goal of reaching South Korea.
To get to South Korea, she first had to escape into China where she still wasn’t safe. China has a long-standing repatriation agreement with North Korea, so defectors who are caught often face torture or worse once they are returned to North Korea. Lee said she narrowly escaped being trafficked.
Through determination and grit, she eventually made it to South Korea, leaving behind her family and everything she had ever known.
Now free, Lee set her sights on reuniting with her son. However, adjusting to life in South Korea posed a different set of challenges.
“At first, I didn’t even know how to order a coffee – I always just chose the first thing on the menu,” she said, smiling.
Lee began notching small victories: finding a place to live, securing paid work, getting a driver’s license and enrolling in college — all things she once thought impossible. She worked tirelessly to build her new life. Balancing three part-time jobs and school, she often got fewer than four hours of sleep per night. She remained undeterred.
“I wasn’t afraid,” Lee said. “I can do anything here.”
Lee shared how at one point she was cleaning dorms for homeless people, earning the equivalent of approximately $4 an hour. She wasn’t ashamed of earning so little, though, she was grateful for the opportunity to earn income.
She also spoke about the difficulty of integrating with younger students due to her age, recalling how she was often excluded from study groups and social activities. She said she would buy fellow students coffee and dinner to get them to warm up to her.
Through it all, she persisted in building connections and eventually the community welcomed her and empathized with her story.
Later, she began to use social media to connect with broader audiences. She launched a YouTube channel where she would visit historical sites in South Korea and discuss its relationship with North Korea as part of her ongoing mission to raise awareness for human rights. She remains active as she fights for the chance to see her son again.
In 2019, her son attempted to escape from North Korea but was detained in China and repatriated before he could reach freedom. He was subjected to severe torture, but through her contacts, Lee learned he is still alive.
“He’s currently in a political prison camp and he’s alive,” she said. “What he’s going through in North Korea is what all the North Koreans are going through, so I want to reveal everything to the world.”
Today, Lee is a prominent human rights activist and vocal critic of the North Korean regime, speaking out about the abuses she witnessed and endured. She has testified before international bodies, including the United Nations.
“Our vision that I talk about with North Korea is that I believe the Kim regime must collapse for the freedom and happiness of North Korean citizens,” Lee said.
She also emphasized that the North Korean people are human, just like everyone else, but they have no freedom.
Every day, their basic rights are stripped from them, and most don’t even know it due to the regime’s complete isolation from the outside world.
Lee hopes the international community will take action, but knows the Korean population needs to protect the liberal democratic system of South Korea.
She remains hopeful she will be reunited with her son one day and finally deliver on the promise she made over a decade ago.
Editor’s Note: Lee’s story has been chronicled in a critically acclaimed 2023 documentary “Beyond Utopia,” which will be played at USAG Humphreys’ Family Theater, June 18 at 2 p.m.
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.09.2025 22:01 |
| Story ID: | 500153 |
| Location: | PYEONGTAEK, GYEONGGIDO [KYONGGI-DO], KR |
| Web Views: | 129 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Beyond the border: A North Korean defector’s journey to freedom, by PFC Seu Chan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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