Lee Hyeon-seo Quotes

Growing up in Pakistan in the 1980s, I lived in the shadow of a tyrannical state.

But, in North Korea, it's just the opposite. There's one story. It's written by the Kim regime. And 23 million people are conscripted to be secondary characters. There, as a youth, your aptitude towards certain jobs is measured, and the rest of your life is dictated, whether you'll be a fisherman or a farmer or an opera singer.

The North Korean regime really can control people. I think they are the best dictator in the whole planet.

In North Koreans, the moment we are born, we don't know there's another life existing outside of our country. The regime always told us all the bad things about the outside world, describing America as full of thieves, all human scum, beggars, everyday people dying on the streets and hospitals.

In Iraq during the days of Saddam, I had a government minder who followed me everywhere, reported on my activities.

The Revolutionary Guard controls almost everything in Iran, and this is hurting the people.

The greatest threat to the security of the people of North Korea comes from the government of North Korea.

I grew up in a dictatorship in East Africa.

In 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only colour to be found was in the propaganda posters. Such is the case in North Korea. Images of Kim Il-sung are depicted in vivid colours. Rays of yellow and orange emanate from his face: he is the sun.

I grew up in a dictatorship in a very Catholic country.

China is a heaven compared to North Korea.

We were taught North Korea is a heaven. They told us how people in western countries die in hospital or have no money to study in school.

We've seen in the past, Justin Trudeau professing his admiration for the basic dictatorship of China.

As a child, every North Korean is very happy. We were very happy because we learned horrible things about the outside world, like in America and Japan. We thought they were suffering; that's why we were very happy... but in reality, we were living under fear.

In communist countries, you execute your poets. In the free world, the poets execute themselves.

India is one vast prison with high walls of suppression clothing her mind and her body.

A totalitarian power is mainly busy in keeping itself alive.

There's no doubt that the Chinese government is waging a full-fledged crackdown on Demosisto.

Kindness towards strangers is rare in North Korea. There is a risk to helping others. The state made accusers and informers of us all.

North Koreans are forced to work at state jobs in a moribund economy. Countless parents watch their children go to bed hungry. Many North Korean families feel they have no option but to try to escape.

In authoritarian societies, cultural institutions tend to become ideological proxies - think of the National Ballet in Cuba or the East German gymnastics team.

My mom told me many times how I need to be careful living inside the regime. We didn't say 'the regime.' We didn't even say 'North Korea.'

Belarus is a closed, authoritarian system, and the theme of Chernobyl is also a closed topic.

North Koreans are tragically oppressed. Despite the risks to my personal safety, I feel a strong obligation to tell the world about the Orwellian nightmare that North Koreans face.

In the same way that Egypt and Libya conspired to 'disappear' my father and silence writers such as Idris Ali, they made me, too, to a far lesser extent, feel punished for speaking out.