Lee T. B. fled North Korea—for mushrooms. Unlike many defectors, he wasn’t suffering poverty or persecution at home. In fact, he was among North Korea’s better-treated citizens.
Lee is a rare “elite defector.” A defector abandons his country, often to join an opposing nation. Lee left because he feared he wouldn’t be free to continue his research. Lee now lives in South Korea.
For decades, Lee has studied fungi to fight disease. More than 25 years ago, Lee’s beloved wife died of cancer. Her dying wish was that he continue his work and develop cancer-preventing products to help others. To fulfill that wish, Lee felt he had to leave North Korea. He says his work was limited and even endangered by government control.
While working as a microbiologist for North Korea’s State Academy of Science, Lee was allowed an unusual opportunity. He went to work for a Siberian mushroom institute for several years. During that time, his wife’s cancer developed and took her life, five days before he came home in 1989. He wanted to honor her wishes, but the North Korean government told him to pursue using mushrooms, pine needles, and corn for alternative food sources.
In 2000, after a severe famine in North Korea, Lee was working at an agricultural institute in northeastern China. There, Lee learned that his mushroom research was being partly funded by South Korea—his country’s rival—without the North’s knowledge. He feared the consequences to his work if his government found out. So he refused an order to return home from China. He moved around, hiding for several years. In 2005, he fled to South Korea.
But leaving North Korea didn’t solve all Lee’s problems. He says he was cheated and exploited by businesspeople he trusted to promote his products. At times, he was so financially strapped that he couldn’t buy food. He traded mushroom products for rice and basic needs.
Lee studies mushrooms that are traditionally thought to have medicinal properties. He extracts tiny hair-like root structures called mycelia from the mushrooms. Lee grows mycelia from various types of mushrooms, mixes them, and creates products that may slow or contain cancer. One 2008 test with laboratory rats suggests the products work.
Finally, the 66-year-old is now working for a company that mass-produces and sells his products. Meanwhile, Lee wonders if his discoveries might have saved his wife’s life, had he been free to pursue his research without interference decades ago.
"I still think about her," says Lee, who has not remarried. "I'm now concentrating all my efforts on trying to prevent people from getting cancer."
