Honey Lee Likely to Become 1st Hallyu Miss Korea

Honey Lee, who finished fourth at the 2007 Miss Universe beauty pageant, has recently drawn attention from Singapore's The Electric New Paper.

It was the first time the daily introduced a beauty contestant, not a celebrity. It wrote that Lee, who holds a third degree black belt in taekwondo, "once played 'bodyguard' to actress Kim Tae-hee" when she was in college, because she is 10 centimeters taller than Kim and has excellent taekwondo skills. The daily wrote, "The two beauties have been good friends since joining the same ski club while studying at Korea's prestigious Seoul National University in 2004."

Lee currently hosts a weekly entertainment show along with emcee Seo Kyung-seok, but she denies that she has made an official debut in showbiz. The Singaporean daily quoted Lee's agency as saying that Lee "wants to represent traditional Korean beauty and culture to the world. And this is the first step toward fulfilling her goal."

The Electronic New Paper showed great interest in Lee, adding that she received a traditional red Mexican doll from the First Lady of Mexico at the Miss Universe competition back in May.

Miss Korea - Honey Lee

Lee Ha-nui (Hangul: 이하늬[1], born March 2, 1983), better known as Honey Lee in the Western media, is a South Korean graduate student and gayageum player who represented her country at the Miss Universe 2007 pageant in Mexico City.

Miss Korea 2006

Lee competed in the 50th Miss Korea pageant, which she won. She graduated from the prestigious Seoul National University, with honors, after taking up Korean traditional music. She is currently a graduate student in the same university.

Miss Universe 2007

For the portion in which all the contestants enter clad in national costumes, Lee wore the female hanbok, reminiscent of the style of the recent 2006 KBS drama Hwang Jin-i. She was also carrying a janggu with her when she wore her costume. Her question in the Question and Answer portion was asked by James Kyson Lee, who is also Korean. Favored by numerous pageant sites as a finalist and potential to become Korea's Miss Universe. Lee finished in the top 5 as 3rd runner-up. She ended Korea's nineteen-year drought in the Miss Universe Finals as a Finalist. The last Miss Korea to be a finalist in Miss Universe was Jang Yun-jeong, winning 1st runner-up in 1988.

Miss Korea