Author Lee Ji-seong's 5-year record of defection from North Korea

From North Korea to China, Southeast Asia, and even to South Korea, what did I see?
A five-year record of the defection journey of Pastor Superman, "North Korea's Schindler," and author Lee Ji-seong, "a strong supporter."

“The book Harvard professors and students are reading right now!”
- Casey Lartigue Jr. (Harvard Graduate School of Education Goodwill Ambassador)

This is what author Lee Ji-seong has been paying attention to for five years.
It is about saving the lives of North Korean defectors.
North Korean defectors leave North Korea and travel through China, Laos, and Thailand before arriving in South Korea.
The long and arduous journey stretches nearly 10,000 kilometers.
Although it is an escape with the determination to die, most are frustrated by the ironclad security of the Chinese public security and the North Korean Ministry of State Security.
But there are heroes who step forward to save even just one more life.
One of them is Pastor Superman, also known as the 'Schindler of North Korea'.
During the rescue process, he was arrested by Chinese police eight times and was imprisoned three times.
With the help of international human rights organizations and the UN, he has rescued over 4,000 North Korean defectors over the past 30 years.

Author Lee Ji-seong has been a 'strong supporter' of Pastor Superman for the past five years.
It played a major role in rescuing North Korean defectors, covering the cost of repairing defector roads, and raising awareness of the reality of North Korean defectors in South Korea and gathering support for their participation.
He flew to Dandong, China, Laos, and Thailand with Pastor Superman to personally help rescue North Korean defectors.
The author, who was knocked down by the immediate arrest, the snake-infested jungle, the North Korean surveillance, and the extreme vigilance of not being able to trust anyone, used to ask himself:
“How on earth did I end up involved in this?” It felt strange to see myself, a so-called successful writer, rescuing those whose freedom and human rights were being oppressed.


The answer to that question is this book, “10,000 Kilometers of Intelligence.”
This book, which contains the hidden truth and the march toward freedom of 33,000 North Korean defectors that no one knows about, is so vivid that it is a quick read.
The perilous 10,000-kilometer journey of North Korean defectors risking their lives, the terrifying pursuit of Chinese police and North Korean security forces, and the brokers who help or harass defectors solely for money.
Here, among South Korea's human rights and missionary organizations helping North Korean defectors, lies the inconvenient truth about some groups that have only pursued their own interests.
Unlike the stories of North Korean defectors that have been full of lies and exaggerations, author Lee Ji-seong's keen insight has made it a point to capture only thoroughly verified facts and record only the truth.


The stories of North Korean defectors—a woman with an amputated ankle carried over a mountain on a stretcher, a twenty-year-old man who successfully escaped only to return to the North and face death, a mother who climbed a three-meter-tall barbed wire fence with her bare hands while carrying a baby on her back—make us confront how fragile human beings are and how difficult it is to maintain their dignity.
Author Lee Ji-seong says:
“What they showed was not an escape.
“It is the courage toward freedom.” Furthermore, as Do Hee-yoon (Coalition for Abductees and North Korean Defectors’ Human Rights), who read this book first, said, “I hope that this book’s positive influence will spread like waves across the world, and that the Cold War era, which is about to start again, will be transformed into a warm story of life.” I hope that this book will be a small fuse.


Pastor Superman and writer Lee Ji-seong's project to rescue North Korean defectors has been attracting attention from overseas.
Harvard University Goodwill Ambassador Casey Lartigue Jr., who knew of the publication of "Ten Thousand Kilometers of Reason" in advance, immediately translated it into English as soon as it was completed, and it is currently being read by Harvard professors and undergraduates.
He was also invited to the Harvard Crimson 150th Anniversary event in April 2023, and in May 2023, author Lee Ji-seong will give special lectures based on this book at prestigious Israeli universities such as Hebrew University, University of Haifa, and Tel Aviv University.