| Jean H. Lee | |
| Birth Place: | Minneapolis, United States |
| Nationality: | American |
| Education: | Columbia University (BA, MS) |
| Occupation: | journalist, podcast host |
| Known For: | Pyongyang bureau chief of the Associated Press |
Jean H. Lee is an American journalist. She previously served as the Associated Press's Pyongyang bureau chief and was the director of the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Wilson Center.
Lee is a native of Minneapolis.[1] She received her B.A. in East Asian studies and English literature from Columbia University in 1992 and her M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1995.[2]
She first worked for The Korea Herald in Seoul, and then joined the Associated Press (AP) and was assigned to bureaus in Baltimore; Fresno, California.; San Francisco; New York; London; Seoul, where she was AP's South Korean bureau chief.[3]
In 2011, she was the first American reporter granted extensive access to North Korea.[4] In 2012, she opened AP's Pyongyang bureau, making it the first American media outlet with a full-time presence in the country, and served as bureau chief until 2013.
In 2015, she joined the Wilson Center as a public policy fellow. 2018, she was named director of the Wilson Center's Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy, a position she stepped from in 2021. She remains a senior fellow at the Wilson Center.[5]
She is currently the co-host of the BBC podcast, "The Lazarus Heist," which is about a high-profile cybercrime that investigators have linked to North Korea.[6] [7]