Rights watchdog names 1st North Korean non-standing commissioner

By Jung Min-ho

Lee Han-byeol

Lee Han-byeol has become the first North Korean refugee to join the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) as one of its seven non-standing commissioners, the rights agency announced on Thursday.

Lee, director of the Improving North Korean Human Rights Center and an advocate for the rights of North Koreans, escaped her birth country in 1999 at the age of 17 and spent three years in China before arriving in South Korea.

In previous media interviews, she said she began to get involved in helping North Korean refugees after the news in 2013 that the government of Laos deported nine North Korean teenagers back to the totalitarian country they had escaped. She said she empathized with their pain because of her personal story; the Chinese government also sent her brother back in 2009 and he has not been heard from since.

After studying Chinese and law at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, she worked as a public servant in Anyang for three years from 2010 while consulting with North Korean refugees.