Hamhung, North Korea, in the 1990s. The "Arduous March" was not just a number of how many starved to death—it was the faces etched with suffering. Neighbors collapsed from hunger, a grandmother and uncle died of starvation, and a young boy lost his father at an early age. For that boy, school and studying were luxuries; he had to roam the seashore and mountains searching for food.
This is the story of Lee Young-hyun, an attorney at Law Firm Irae, born in Hamhung in 1983. Lee, the first North Korean defector to become a lawyer in South Korea, recalled in an interview with The Seoul Economic Daily on Wednesday, "Looking back at that time, I was just a child with nothing but bones."
In 1997, Lee headed to China with his maternal uncle to find rice. While crossing the Tumen River, his uncle was swept away by the rapids and went missing. Lee arrived in China alone. That journey became his defection.
"The five years in China were a struggle for survival doing manual labor, but it was also a period that changed the direction of my life," he said. "With help from a Korean-American missionary, I was able to attend school briefly and learned about South Korea—a country I came to admire."
When Lee arrived in South Korea in 2002, he could not move for a moment upon entry. "The moment I landed at Incheon Airport, I sat down on the floor and cried for several minutes," he said. "I couldn't sleep for days before arriving just thinking about coming to Korea. I thought my life was beginning anew and decided I must work for North Korean people in South Korea."
Lee enrolled as a high school freshman at age 19, studying alongside students two or three years younger. "I fulfilled my wish to study freely, but I also worried about what I should do with my future," he said. "Then a teacher advised me, 'Why not become a legal professional responsible for North Korean human rights?'"
In a country where even native-born South Koreans struggle to become lawyers, a newly arrived defector aspiring to the bar seemed reckless. People around him tried to dissuade him, but his resolve was firm. He enrolled in Yonsei University's law department and prepared for the bar exam.
"Studying law was extremely difficult. Looking at textbooks, every single letter felt like a huge wall, and my first-year final exam scores were at the very bottom," Lee said. "I couldn't afford to attend private academies like others, so during vacations, I would shave my head and go into an empty house in the mountains owned by an acquaintance to study alone."
When the law school system was introduced, he enrolled at Kyungpook National University Law School. But law school studies were even harder than undergraduate law. Despite the difficulty, he never gave up his determination to become a lawyer. After failing four times, he passed the bar exam on his fifth attempt.
Now in his seventh year as an attorney, his practice spans criminal and insurance cases as well as civil, administrative, and family matters. Yet his most rewarding moments lie elsewhere.
"For defectors, I'm the only legal expert they have, but their financial circumstances make it difficult to seek out a lawyer," Lee said. "So I provide free legal consultations for North Korean defectors."
His focus remains on North Korean residents and human rights. He is actively participating in efforts to file charges against the Kim Jong-un regime for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.
Lee recently became the head of Korea Internet Service (KIS), a newly established internet media outlet targeting North Korea. "With overseas North Korea-focused media like Voice of America being scaled back or shut down, channels to deliver outside information to North Korean residents have become desperately needed," he explained. "KIS aims to deliver information from inside and outside North Korea to North Korean residents who can access the internet from abroad, enabling them to make their own judgments."
KIS does not engage in commercial activities and operates purely through donations. Donation account information is available on the KIS website.
"Even the price of a cup of coffee is fine. The amount of the donation doesn't matter," Lee said. "Please help KIS play a significant role so that North Korean residents can have access to information that allows them to make their own judgments."
