Although Hyun-seung Lee was a member of the North Korean ruling party and had a successful career as a businessman in the capital Pyongyang, he was forced to flee his homeland in 2014. It began with the assassination of Jang Song-thaek the year before.

Jang was a senior member of the ruling party and married Uncle Kim-Jong Un.

After the murder, Hyun-seung Lee describes how a witch hunt begins on everyone in Jang's vicinity.

Something that also affects Hyun-seung, because his father was a friend of Jang.

- All of a sudden, both my dad and my friends started to be executed.

It shocked the whole family and made us decide to leave the country.

People are starving

Today there Hyun-seung Lee in the United States where he and his sister run a Youtube channel where they talk about their experiences.

He describes his current life as quite different from the time in North Korea and says he was shocked the first time he had to leave the country.

- I got the chance to study in China.

It was then that I realized that North Korea was something completely different than I had thought.

I had been deceived by the propaganda.

Hyun-seung believes that North Korea has always been poor but that the pandemic has made the problems even worse.

Much because of the country for almost two years, the border with China closed.

- In western North Korea, a lot of grain is produced.

However, the pandemic has meant that the country has not had access to the necessary agricultural machinery and manure.

This has meant that large numbers of people have died of starvation.

Has trained thousands of hackers

The UN is predicted in a forthcoming report to accuse North Korea of ​​having trained hackers to steal cryptocurrencies from other countries.

Something that is used to finance the country's nuclear weapons program.

Hyun-seung Lee knows the information and is convinced that it is correct.

- In China and the rest of East Asia, there are up to 5,000 North Korean hackers.

Their only task is to steal money and information from the rest of the world, says Hyun-seung.

Click on the clip to see Hyun-seung Lee talk about why he left North Korea and see more about the country in the Foreign Office: The crypto thief on SVT Play from 7.30 pm or on SVT2 at 10 pm.