She became the face of North Korean refugees last summer at the 2014 One Young World conference when her halting, tear-filled but heartfelt speech brought an audience to its feet and many to tears. How did she escape the horrors of that dictatorship and arrive at her new, thriving life in South Korea as a college student and activist? The story is a saga of fear, hope and love that is as thrilling as any fiction ever written, although every word is true.
Early Life
She was born to relatively affluent parents in North Korea, and for the first few years of her life she did not understand that her life under that regime was different than in other parts of the world. "We did not realize that people in the rest of the world have freedom," she explains. "To me, it was the way it was and it was right because it was all I had ever known." Her father, however, held opinions about the government that would one day prove dangerous for him and his family. However, with the encouragement of her mother, her father kept his opinions to himself.
She and her sister grew up in relative comfort until she was nine years old. That year, an event that would change her life occurred. "I saw the public execution of a woman I knew, my best friend's mother," she says. "She was tortured and shot because she watched a video that was forbidden and gave it to someone else. Suddenly, I knew what terror was." Always intelligent, she thought over the situation and realized that if her best friend's mother could be executed in this way, it could happen to anyone—even herself. "I finally understood fear, and from that moment on I never looked at the government the same way again."
Later, she got even more food for thought when she saw a black market copy of the movie Titanic. "For people to fall in love and have freedom like that," Yeonmi Park said, "it was a revelation for me. I never realized that these things existed because our government did not permit any type of romantic or fictional movies or reading material. Everything had to be in praise of the government."
All of these experiences led her to new realizations and slowly prepared her for what was to come. That was fortunate, because she would need every bit of strength she possessed in order to survive the coming years.
Flight
Things changed very quickly in her world when her father was suddenly arrested for allegedly buying and selling black market goods. "Suddenly, we went from secure and affluent to struggling and afraid," she remembers. Her father was held in a prison camp for political dissidents, where he learned that he was suffering from colon cancer.
Early Life
She was born to relatively affluent parents in North Korea, and for the first few years of her life she did not understand that her life under that regime was different than in other parts of the world. "We did not realize that people in the rest of the world have freedom," she explains. "To me, it was the way it was and it was right because it was all I had ever known." Her father, however, held opinions about the government that would one day prove dangerous for him and his family. However, with the encouragement of her mother, her father kept his opinions to himself.
She and her sister grew up in relative comfort until she was nine years old. That year, an event that would change her life occurred. "I saw the public execution of a woman I knew, my best friend's mother," she says. "She was tortured and shot because she watched a video that was forbidden and gave it to someone else. Suddenly, I knew what terror was." Always intelligent, she thought over the situation and realized that if her best friend's mother could be executed in this way, it could happen to anyone—even herself. "I finally understood fear, and from that moment on I never looked at the government the same way again."
Later, she got even more food for thought when she saw a black market copy of the movie Titanic. "For people to fall in love and have freedom like that," Yeonmi Park said, "it was a revelation for me. I never realized that these things existed because our government did not permit any type of romantic or fictional movies or reading material. Everything had to be in praise of the government."
All of these experiences led her to new realizations and slowly prepared her for what was to come. That was fortunate, because she would need every bit of strength she possessed in order to survive the coming years.
Flight
Things changed very quickly in her world when her father was suddenly arrested for allegedly buying and selling black market goods. "Suddenly, we went from secure and affluent to struggling and afraid," she remembers. Her father was held in a prison camp for political dissidents, where he learned that he was suffering from colon cancer.
This revelation prompted him to take a dangerous chance. Her father bribed a guard to allow him to escape. Along with she and her mother, he fled the country, taking the dangerous northern overland route through China. "My sister had gone ahead and we did not know if we would ever find her, but it was more important that we all escape than that we wait for each other," she notes. Eventually, she would be reunited with her sister in South Korea, but at the time the two had no way of communicating.
Tragedy struck when they were in the mountains of Mongolia. Her father succumbed to the cancer he had been diagnosed with earlier, and she and her mother were forced to bury him quickly in an unmarked grave. To this day, she does not know where her father lies. "It was so hard to leave him there without even a marker on his grave," she remembers.
Even more danger and pain awaited her and her mother. They found a broker to take them across the border into South Korea, but the man demanded sexual favors from the 14-year-old. Her mother interceded and begged the man to take her instead. He raped her mother in front of her. Even after the pair escaped the rapist, sexual assault was always a danger. She recalls seeing young girls sold for $200 to men in China. Many of them would never be heard from again.
"It is hard to talk about and even harder to understand how women are treated in North Korea and China," she says. "It is not like other places in the world, and that makes people sometimes reluctant to believe that these types of things happen."
South Korea
With the help of Christian missionaries and other groups, she and her mother were sheltered and eventually arrived in Seoul, South Korea, where they were welcomed as legal refugees. She recalls weeping when she learned that they were finally safe, and experiencing even more joy when she was reunited with her sister, who had arrived in Seoul earlier.
Today, she divides her time between her political science studies and her activism on behalf of North Korean refugees and others living under totalitarian dictatorships. "I want the world to understand what is really happening in these countries," she says. "These people that live in North Korea and other places, they have no voice. No one hears them. I want everyone to hear them."
As part of her work, she is involved with several humanitarian groups and regularly travels the globe, speaking at various human rights events. She is also a regular on the South Korean television show Now On My Way To Meet You, a series dedicated to bringing to the attention of South Koreans the stories of their North Korean friends and making them away of the plight of refugees in their country. "Sometimes, South Korean people are not accepting of North Korean refugees," she notes. "Our show helps them understand and be more open to these victims."
For Yeon-Mi Park, nothing could be more important than sharing that message and telling others her story in the hopes that the world will help those who suffer from lack of basic human rights.
Tragedy struck when they were in the mountains of Mongolia. Her father succumbed to the cancer he had been diagnosed with earlier, and she and her mother were forced to bury him quickly in an unmarked grave. To this day, she does not know where her father lies. "It was so hard to leave him there without even a marker on his grave," she remembers.
Even more danger and pain awaited her and her mother. They found a broker to take them across the border into South Korea, but the man demanded sexual favors from the 14-year-old. Her mother interceded and begged the man to take her instead. He raped her mother in front of her. Even after the pair escaped the rapist, sexual assault was always a danger. She recalls seeing young girls sold for $200 to men in China. Many of them would never be heard from again.
"It is hard to talk about and even harder to understand how women are treated in North Korea and China," she says. "It is not like other places in the world, and that makes people sometimes reluctant to believe that these types of things happen."
South Korea
With the help of Christian missionaries and other groups, she and her mother were sheltered and eventually arrived in Seoul, South Korea, where they were welcomed as legal refugees. She recalls weeping when she learned that they were finally safe, and experiencing even more joy when she was reunited with her sister, who had arrived in Seoul earlier.
Today, she divides her time between her political science studies and her activism on behalf of North Korean refugees and others living under totalitarian dictatorships. "I want the world to understand what is really happening in these countries," she says. "These people that live in North Korea and other places, they have no voice. No one hears them. I want everyone to hear them."
As part of her work, she is involved with several humanitarian groups and regularly travels the globe, speaking at various human rights events. She is also a regular on the South Korean television show Now On My Way To Meet You, a series dedicated to bringing to the attention of South Koreans the stories of their North Korean friends and making them away of the plight of refugees in their country. "Sometimes, South Korean people are not accepting of North Korean refugees," she notes. "Our show helps them understand and be more open to these victims."
For Yeon-Mi Park, nothing could be more important than sharing that message and telling others her story in the hopes that the world will help those who suffer from lack of basic human rights.