North Korean Follows Path to Freedom in Bangkok
By Simon Duncan
Assistant Editor


Hyeonseo Lee talks to the press Friday Feb. 12, 2016, at the Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok.

BANGKOK — In January 2008, Hyeonseo Lee boarded a flight from Shanghai to Bangkok via Seoul. Lee differed from the millions of Chinese who fly to Thailand each year: Her Chinese passport was fake.

She was actually North Korean.

Lee never made it to Bangkok that day, as she got off the plane on her stopover in Seoul and sought asylum. After months spent in detention centers, she won her freedom after proving to authorities she was a North Korean refugee.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1455709070&typecate=06&section=


-- Khaosod English 2016-02-18

if she's North Korean she will feel at home in Thailand then

Pretty girl. Wouldn't have minded her seeking asylum in my arms. Although my wife would have imprisoned her for sure hehee

Pretty girl. Wouldn't have minded her seeking asylum in my arms. Although my wife would have imprisoned her for sure hehee

Not just a pretty face. Smart, too.

if she's North Korean she will feel at home in Thailand then

Yea unless the govt. sends her back to NK. I wouldn't be surprise if they did.

I volunteer to take time off my busy schedule of doing absolutely nothing and show her around and teach her English,

it will take few weeks, but I'm all for helping another human being.....

Must have good dentists in North Korea...........................

IMHO some of the prettiest women in Asia are in S. Korea. I haven't seen N. Korea but it's possible it's the same?

she should spend some time in Hua Hin after her ordeal.

I'm getting the spare bedroom setup right now.

A move to North Korea could mean more freedom for me.

if she's North Korean she will feel at home in Thailand then

In Thailand only 99.3 % of the population is happy with their dear leader. In NK the percentage is much higher!

Lucky for her she did not continue to Thailand....she would have been deported back to NK

Not exactly smart to attract so much publicity in the "West" ....it surely would not be too difficult for NK agents to locate her after she leaves the Shangri-La.

Usually, the Dear Leader executes all remaining members of the fugitive's family.

Anyone interested in the terrifying journey that North Koreans have to undertake in order to escape from the vile regime that runs their country should read:

In Order to Live - A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom, by Yeonmi Park.

Fairly easily available as an e-book if you know where to look.

It also featured as a BBC "Book of the Week” which appears to be no longer available but I am quite happy to share with anyone

After a long journey through China and dealing with abuse and corrupt officials, she still has to endure months of interrogation in South Korea to “prove” that she is in fact from the North.

Meanwhile, odd things continue to happen locally: http://www.asiasentinel.com/opinion/another-suicide-in-top-thailand-police-ranks/#frameId=appnext_widget&height=64

This happened 8 years ago, she is here for the first time to promote her book I believe.

"Thailand is the most important country for North Koreans, Lee said Saturday in her speech at Bangkok Edge, because it allows safe passage from the border with Laos to Bangkok and the South Korean embassy."

Tell that to the Uighurs

If only all asylum seekers would be like her...

Mocking the leader is a serious offense in North Korea, unthinkable in public and risky even in private, as people may inform the police. - Khaosod English report.

Deja vu.

"Lee never made it to Bangkok that day". More examples of how headline writers don't read the article. It seems 8 years after she got off in Seoul she came to Bangkok. If she'd come straight here (these days at least) she'd been sent right back to death in N Korea. Maybe odds would have been better 8 years ago, when Thailand wasn't such a lapdog to China.

If she found freedom in Thailand, I hope she is kind enough to give us directions just where it is. Been missing for a while now.....

Not exactly smart to attract so much publicity in the "West" ....it surely would not be too difficult for NK agents to locate her after she leaves the Shangri-La.

Usually, the Dear Leader executes all remaining members of the fugitive's family.

"Usually, the Dear Leader executes all remaining members of the fugitive's family."

Completely untrue, but well in keeping with a lot of the other nonsense one reads on the subject of the DPRK on Thaivisa.

IMHO some of the prettiest women in Asia are in S. Korea. I haven't seen N. Korea but it's possible it's the same?

Never Sure, I totally 100% agree with you on this one.

South Korean men actually prefer the North Korean as they see them as "more pure"

I have told Thais that I think Thai women are the second most beautiful in the world, second to the Koreans. They always come back that it is only because of plastic surgery. Thailand number 1!

If Prayout can make an interesting deal with NK, for sure she will be sent back...

This happened 8 years ago, she is here for the first time to promote her book I believe.

"Thailand is the most important country for North Koreans, Lee said Saturday in her speech at Bangkok Edge, because it allows safe passage from the border with Laos to Bangkok and the South Korean embassy."

Tell that to the Uighurs

She is a genuine refugee unlike the Muslim Uighurs - who are '''refugees''' only because their savage 7th century belief system puts them in conflict with non-believers right across the world.

Must have good dentists in North Korea...........................

its probably the lack of sugar and caffine in their cabbage diet that helped there

if she's North Korean she will feel at home in Thailand then

A tad of an exaggeration?

Have you or the geniuses who liked your post ever been to NK, on business, holiday or lived there?

This happened 8 years ago, she is here for the first time to promote her book I believe.

"Thailand is the most important country for North Koreans, Lee said Saturday in her speech at Bangkok Edge, because it allows safe passage from the border with Laos to Bangkok and the South Korean embassy."

Tell that to the Uighurs

She is a genuine refugee unlike the Muslim Uighurs - who are '''refugees''' only because their savage 7th century belief system puts them in conflict with non-believers right across the world.

Not heard of any North Korean refugees carrying out terrorist attacks.

Not exactly smart to attract so much publicity in the "West" ....it surely would not be too difficult for NK agents to locate her after she leaves the Shangri-La.

Usually, the Dear Leader executes all remaining members of the fugitive's family.

"Usually, the Dear Leader executes all remaining members of the fugitive's family."

Completely untrue, but well in keeping with a lot of the other nonsense one reads on the subject of the DPRK on Thaivisa.

Are you an attaché at the N Korean (sorry, Embassy of the DPRK) in Bangkok by any chance? (Your avatar would suggest so)

I see your words are as unprovable, beyond all doubt, as mine are. However, the history of all totalitarianism suggests that your family is in danger, back home, when you decide to eff off.

Brave girl. I wonder however, if her all relatives are now imprisoned in a concentration camp as a North Korea standard practice, or outcome.

Pretty girl. Wouldn't have minded her seeking asylum in my arms. Although my wife would have imprisoned her for sure hehee

Why posters on this forum always think and talk from their small head?

Pretty girl. Wouldn't have minded her seeking asylum in my arms. Although my wife would have imprisoned her for sure hehee

Why posters on this forum always think and talk from their small head?[/quote

I guess the same reason other posters feel they need to get a comment in even if it means criticizing a joke.