Ryu Seong-hyeon was a teenager in North Korea when he found a leaflet apparently sent from the South. The small piece of paper featured a big claim: that the North had started the Korean War by invading the South, directly contradicting what he had always been taught.

According to Ryu, that simple statement planted a seed of doubt in his mind that would eventually lead him to make a bold and dangerous defection across the landmine-riddled Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), in pursuit of a better life in the ROK.

Now, years after his defection, he emphasized the importance of efforts to