The Rest of the Story

The Chosun Ilbo tells the story of Lee Ae-Ran, a North Korean refugee in the South, who just earned her Ph.D. in Nutritional Science and Food Management from the prestigious Ewha Women’s University. By doing so, claims the Chosun, Ms. Lee has become the first female North Korean defector to earn a Ph.D. from a South Korean university.

Ms. Lee’s name sounded familiar to me — maybe because it sounds vaguely like the name of a girl I once dated — so I consulted the vast OFK archives, which will have compiled five full years of nearly-useless trivia at the end of this month. Sure enough, this is the same Lee Ae-Ran who unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the National Assembly last year (compare the Chosun’s photo to this one). There’s no shame in losing a fair election, or in bouncing back from it the way Ms. Lee obviously did. Odd that the Chosun Ilbo didn’t mention this.