Kyung I. Lah is a Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

-based international correspondent for CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

.

Early life and education

Born in Seoul

Seoul

Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, South Korea, and raised in Streamwood, Illinois

Streamwood, Illinois

Streamwood is a village of Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 39,497 at the 2006 census. It is a suburb of Chicago.Streamwood, along with Bartlett and Hanover Park, is one of the three communities that make up the so called "Tri Village" area...

, Lah graduated in 1989 from Hoffman Estates High School

Hoffman Estates High School

Hoffman Estates High School, or HEHS, is a public four-year high school located in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 211, which also includes James B...

 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Hoffman Estates is a northwestern suburb of Chicago in Illinois. The village is located primarily in Cook County with a small section in Kane County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 49,495 and estimated to be 52,520 in 2003...

. She earned a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

 in 1993. She also was a writer for the school's Daily Illini

Daily Illini

The Daily Illini, commonly known as the DI, is an independent, student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1871...

 newspaper.

Professional career

Lah began her career in 1993 as a desk assistant and field producer at WBBM-TV

WBBM-TV

WBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...

 in Chicago. In 1994, she became an on-air reporter for WWMT

WWMT

WWMT is the CBS-affiliated television station for West Michigan licensed to Kalamazoo. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter on Chief Noonday Road/M-179, northwest of Yankee Springs Township, along the Barry and Allegan County line. The station can also...

-TV in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Kalamazoo, Michigan

The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...

. In 1995, she joined KGTV

KGTV

KGTV, digital channel 10, is the ABC television affiliate in San Diego, California. The station can be seen on Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T U-verse on cable channel 10 in standard definition. Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable carry its high definition signal on cable...

-TV in San Diego as a reporter.

In January 2000, she took a job at WBBM-TV in Chicago as an on-air reporter.

In early 2003, Lah moved to Los Angeles to take a job at KNBC

KNBC

KNBC, channel 4, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KNBC's studios and offices are located within the NBC Studios complex in Burbank, California, and its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson...

-TV in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, where she was a morning reporter and a midday anchor. The Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

 reported at the time that Lah had turned down a "half-hearted (contract) renewal offer" from WBBM-TV.

Recent work

In late 2005, Lah joined CNN Newsource

CNN Newsource

CNN Newsource is an affiliation video service from CNN. The service is subscription based and provides CNN content to television stations affiliated with CNN, including terrestrial stations and international stations....

 as a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent.

In November 2007, Lah became CNN's Tokyo-based correspondent. A Japanese interpreter always accompanies her.

Personal Life

Lah has declared that she holds a very strong Korean identity. In an interview with Dynamic-Korea, she revealed that she "[thinks] about the larger question of being Korean every single moment."

In March 2005, Kyung Lah and "Today in L.A." producer Jeff Soto were fired for having an affair. Lah was married at the time.

As of late September 2011, she is on maternity leave.

External links

• CNN Profile