“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News series featuring interviews with North Korean defectors, most of whom left the DPRK within the last few years.

Readers may submit their questions for defectors by emailing [email protected] and including their first name and city of residence.

Today’s question is from Jack, who asks how North Koreans think about mental health.

Hyun-seung Lee — who comes from an elite North Korean family and defected in 2014 — spoke with NK News about how North Koreans link mental and ideological health, the country’s lack of therapists and its notorious “mental hospitals.”

Lee now