She was born and raised in South Korea and moved to the United States when she was 13. Growing up, she had a strong interest (she refers to it as an obsession) in North Korea. As a journalist, she was given several opportunities to travel to North Korea. Suki Kim decided that visiting North Korea wasn’t enough, since visitors are only able to see certain parts of the country. She wanted to show the world what North Korea was like, from the inside. Suki Kim went undercover as a Christian missionary school teacher and taught English at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology: a school for the sons of North Korea’s elite in Pyongyang, North Korea. Suki Kim spent two semesters: summer and fall, getting to know more than 100 college age boys in North Korea.