Hyeonseo Lee is a North Korean defector and human rights activist currently living in South Korea.

Her memoir, “The Girl With Seven Names,: A North Korean Defector's Story,” was published in 2015 and has so far been translated into 19 languages. Over nine million people have viewed Ms. Lee’s TED talk about her life in North Korea, her escape to China as a teenager, and her struggle to rescue her mother and brother, guiding them on a life-and-death journey to freedom.

Ms. Lee has testified about North Korean human rights abuses in front of a special panel of the United Nations Security Council. She spends much of her time traveling across the globe to raise awareness about North Korean human rights and refugee issues. She has contributed to articles published in The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and the London School of Economics Big Ideas blog, among others, and has been interviewed by major media organizations around the world.

Ms. Lee is currently establishing an N.G.O. that aims to help North Korean victims of human trafficking, including women who have been forced into sexual slavery and marriage against their will.