Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park (2024)

Yeon-mi Park (Korean: 박연미; born: October 4, 1993 [age 30]), better known online as Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park, is a North Korean defector and human rights activist. She is the author of In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey To Freedom. She currently lives in the U.S. state of New York.^[1]

Personal life[]

Life in North Korea[]

Park was born on October 4, 1993, in Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, North Korea. Her elder sister, Eun-mi, was born in 1991.^[2] Her father, Park Jin-Sik, was a government worker affiliated with the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, stationed at the Hyesan town hall. Her mother, Byeon Keum-sook, worked as a nurse in the Korean People's Army.

After her father secured a job at a foundry, he engaged in extra activities such as illegal smuggling of Chinese goods like cigarettes, clothing, and rice to supplement the family's income. He met Byeon in Kowon during one of his smuggling trips in 1989. He later established an illicit metal smuggling operation in Pyongyang, spending most of his time there with his mistress Wan Sun while his wife and daughters remained in Hyesan. The family enjoyed a relatively affluent life by North Korean standards during Park's early years. However, their situation deteriorated following her father's arrest in November 2002 for unauthorized trading of salt, sugar, and spices.

According to Park's account, her father was subjected to harsh labor in the Chungsan reeducation camp after a staged trial in 2004. Her perspective on the ruling Kim family shifted when she managed to watch an illegally imported VHS copy of the movie Titanic, in which she recognized the "tyrannical character" of the North Korean regime. She asserts that the film exposed her to the concepts of genuine love and granted her a glimpse of "freedom."^[3]

Upon being reunited with his family, Park's father encouraged them to devise a plan for escaping to China. However, her older sister Eun-mi decided to flee to China ahead of them without informing them.^[4] Fearing repercussions for Eun-mi's escape, Park and her family chose to flee North Korea by making their way through China with the aid of intermediaries who specialize in smuggling North Koreans into China.^[4]

Escape[]

Park and her family made their escape from North Korea by crossing the border into Changbai Korean Autonomous County in Jilin, China. On the night of March 30, 2007, assisted by human traffickers, Park and her mother successfully entered China. Sources like The Guardian and The Telegraph report that Park's father, who was unwell, remained in North Korea, thinking that his illness might hinder their journey. However, other statements from Park herself suggested that her father might have actually crossed into China with them.^[5] Once across the border, Park and her mother traveled to Jilin. They attempted to locate Park's sister, Eun-mi, by asking the traffickers, but were unsuccessful, leading them to assume that Eun-mi had passed away.

As per The Telegraph, in January 2008, while the family was living covertly, Park's father passed away. Due to the fear of being discovered by Chinese authorities, the family couldn't hold a proper mourning ceremony and instead buried his cremated remains in the nearby mountains.^[4] Park's mother later informed The Diplomat in 2014 that they had paid two individuals to assist in carrying his body up the mountain for the burial.^[5]

Subsequently, Park and her mother discovered refuge in a Christian shelter run by Chinese and South Korean missionaries in Qingdao. Benefiting from the substantial ethnic Korean community in the city, they managed to avoid drawing the attention of the authorities. With the support of these missionaries, they orchestrated their journey to South Korea via Mongolia.^[4]

Life in the United States[]

Yeon-mi married an American named Ezekiel in January 2017, and gave birth to a child on March 18, 2018.^[6] Yeon-mi and Ezekiel divorced in 2020.

Quotes[]

• ”I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea and that I escaped from North Korea. Both of these events shaped me, and I would not trade them for an ordinary and peaceful life.”^[7]
• ”Freedom is so fragile, but without it, we cannot be who we are as human beings. Only way for us to live as humans is to live free and that is why we must fight with everything we have to be free.”^[8]
• ”Freedom is not something you can take for granted - it is the most precious thing you can have.”^[9]

Subscriber milestones[]

• 100,000 subscribers: October 23, 2020
• 500,000 subscribers: May 4, 2021

Trivia[]

• Yeon-mi is a member of LiNK (Liberty in North Korea), a U.S. nonprofit organization that rescues North Korean refugees hiding in China and resettles them in South Korea and the United States.
• She is a major in economics.
• She is mentioned in a video by RealLifeLore.^[10]

References[]