Tom O’Neill is a staff writer for National Geographic magazine. He has covered a wide range of subjects, from the recent insurgency in the Niger Delta and making first contact with tribes in New Guinea to the revival of samurai culture in Japan and looking for echoes of the Grimm fairy tales in Germany. A piece on the demilitarized zone in 2003 and ten days spent in North Korea a year later laid the groundwork for "Escape from North Korea," his Feb. 2009 story on North Korean defectors. His 2003 story on India’s untouchables won honorable mention for best magazine reporting from abroad from the Overseas Press Club.
Tom grew up in Champaign, Illinois, and graduated from Beloit College. He now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife, So-Young Lee.

So-Young Lee was founding editor of National Geographic-Korea. A native of Seoul, she graduated from Ewha Women's University and earned masters degrees in English Literature and Library Science from the University of Maryland.  In Korea she also planned, edited, and wrote English study texts for YBM/Si-sa.  She met Tom during his fieldwork on the DMZ and they married in 2004. They worked together for the first time on "Escape From North Korea."  Currently So-Young teaches writing courses in the Washington area and works as a freelance translator.