BY KAREN BOSSICK
Get the lowdown on Kim Jong-un and the situation in North Korea on Monday when the woman who opened the Associated Press bureau in Pyongyang speaks in Ketchum.
Jean H. Lee, who was the first American reporter granted extensive access on the ground in North Korea, will speak on “Never-Ending Korean War: Inching Closer to Conflict with North Korea” at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29, at Ketchum’s Community Library (NOTE the 5 p.m. time).
Lee, a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center led the AP’s news agency’s coverage of the Korean Peninsula as bureau chief from 2008 to 2013. The Pyongyang bureau is the only Western text/photo news bureau based in the North Korean capital.
During her tenure, AP’s coverage of Kim Jong-il’s 2011 death earned an honorable mention in the deadline reporting category of the 2012 Associated Press Media Editors awards for journalism in the United States and Canada.
Lee also won an Online Journalism Award in 2013 for her role in using photography, video and social media in North Korea and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in feature reporting in 2013.
She has made dozens of extended reporting trips to North Korea, visiting farms, factories, schools, military academies and homes. The country is considered the most restricted place in the world when it comes to the press.
A native of Minneapolis, Lee has a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies and English from Columbia University and a master’s degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She has also worked as a reporter for the Korea Herald in Seoul, South Korea.
Her presentation is made possible in partnership with the Boise Committee on Foreign Relations.