Yeonmi Park's Inspiring Journey to Freedom

Good evening, everyone. Hope you guys are enjoying your fine dinner. Today I have the honor and pleasure of introducing Yeonmi Park. Born in North Korea, the human activist and YAF speaker grew up in the Argyris Society of North Korea. But at the age of 13, she and her family made a daring escape to China. search of a life free from tyranny. She recounts this incredible story in her searing memoir, In Order to Live, a North Korean girl's journey to freedom, in a more recent publication, While It Remains, a North Korean's de facto search for freedom in America. America. She will also be speaking at our annual Road to Freedom seminar this September at the Reagan Ranch. I highly recommend you guys all attend or plan on having her come to your college for this college campus lecture series. Please join me in welcoming Yeonmi Park. Wow, thank you so much. You might be the only crowd welcoming a human rights activist like this. Sometimes I feel like I'm a K-pop star here, you know? So, thank you for that warm welcoming. It's such an honor. And no matter how many times I do this, I still really get nervous. And whenever I get this nervous, I tell myself this one thing. No matter what I do on that stage, I'm not going to be executed at the end of the day. So don't be scared. Get on there and tell your story. Thank you. I think that is, in essence, that's the true beauty of living in freedom. Yesterday, I'm sure a lot of you have followed the news cycle, seeing how our capital was insulted. by these terrorists and seeing the American flag was getting burnt. And I just couldn't believe because when I was in North Korea, my dream and everybody else's dream was actually visiting our capital Pyongyang. In North Korea, no one is allowed to move around without government's permit. Now these people, the people were chanting death to America yesterday, live in a country They give them liberty, speak their mind, and move around and go to their capital. And they don't realize how unique this country is and how precious this freedom is that we have. And that's why I'm here. I want to talk about my life under socialist paradise. I was born in North Korea in the city called Hae San in the northern part. The very first thing that I learned as a young girl was, from my mother, was this, don't even whisper, because the birds and mice could hear me. She told me that if I said one thing wrong, it was going to kill three to eight generations of my family. That's how very early on that I learned, just don't even whisper. It was just too dangerous. I didn't go to school like a normal child. But when I went to North Korean school, the things that I learned was, I'm sure you guys are not surprised by this, I had to call you guys bastards. That was an all-day education, hating American bastards. Even when I had to learn numbers as a kid, it was like this. There are four American bastards. You kill two of them. How many American bastards left to kill? And I would be saying, two American bastards. Now I'm an American bastard myself. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I can be only American myself because your society, freedom, has generosity of grace. It has mercy. The reason why social societies are so hateful is because there is no mercy. Even though... It's not my fault that I was born in North Korea, calling you guys bastards and hating you with everything I had. Americans believe in mercy. But in North Korea, in socialism, they don't believe in that. Only thing they believe in is punishment. When I was born in North Korea, I believed that I was living in the most amazing country. The regime made me to sing this song called Nothing to Envy. Because literally... that North Korea is a paradise on earth. But in this country where we had nothing to envy, we had 51 different castes. People were divided into 51 different classes. And unfortunately, North Koreans are not like America. We're a homogeneous nation. We have one racist Koreans all eating kimchi, right? How on earth would you divide people into 51 different classes? They couldn't play the race card like America, so they decided to divide us based on who our ancestors were. If my ancestor, if my great-grandfather was a landowner, they decided that my blood was tainted. My genetics was oppressive. That's how I go into lower ranking of the caste. If your great-grandfather was fought along with Kim Il-sung and Marxists, your blood is royal. Therefore, you... would be on the top of the cast. So when you're born in North Korea, your life is already determined for you. Not by your choice, but by your ancestors. And based on that status of caste, government determines who gets fed and who gets to live in prosperity. So I'm on like my five inch high here right now. But North Koreans are on average five inch shorter than South Koreans. Because of the malnutrition that you experience, the governments use hunger as a tool of control. Have you guys seen the movie Hunger Games? Yes, or the Red Bull. It's like that. There's a capital, Pyongyang. There's other districts. I was in the northern district. And they feed people in Pyongyang very well, but the remaining districts are starved. The reason is... Why we are starved? There's no reason for us to be starved. But if we constantly starve, we don't have time to think about freedom or government or anything else other than just finding next meal. That's all I did in North Korea. If I found something to eat in the breakfast, only thing I had to worry about was finding lunch or dinner. If I make one day in North Korea, I worry about tomorrow. How do I survive tomorrow? Every single second is a survivor. So you have no time to think about meaning of life or political system. You're constantly worrying about surviving. And that is why governments are keeping us starved the entire time. By the time when I was 13 years old, it was 2007, I no longer couldn't find anything else. Usually my diet consists of eating dragonflies, grasshoppers. I see so many of my friends in New York City right now fantasizing about eating these insects to save climate. I'm like, are you joking me? They are disgusting. That's not an innovation or progress, right? If you go to North Korea, if anybody believes that you can do that, every day you're going to eat insects. You're never going to eat chicken or steak. But by the time it was 2007, it was March. I was really surprised when I came to the free world where spring was a symbol of a renewal, hope. In North Korea, spring is a season of death because crops don't grow in the spring. Still things are frozen, and people who maintain the collecting during the fall and survive the winter, usually March is where the most people die from starvation. So I could not find gather or anything in the nature. And luckily, I was living in the border town of North Korea, and I saw the lights like this coming from that side. Have you ever seen North Korean satellite picture at nighttime? It is the darkest place in the world right now. They don't even have electricity. So in that darkness, I saw some lights from Chinese side and I just guessed maybe if I go where the lights are I might be able to find a bowl of rice how simple is that as 13 years old but I thought about this with my own sister at the time who was 16 years old we initially wanted to go to China escape there together but I got extremely sick so she left first I followed her seven days later And my sister luckily left me a note saying, go find this lady, she will help you to come to China and find me. I found the lady that my sister told me to find. And this lady, by somehow, I don't know why, but she wanted to help me to go to China. Crossing the North Korean border into China is not like crossing American-Sodom border right now. It's not like, welcome, come, right? It's the land mines, the electrified wire fences, machine guns with the guards, ready to shoot anybody. They have something called the shoot to kill order, which means you don't need to interrogate or verify. You can just shoot anybody who's on the border. Of course, that's not cool. But the lady who was helping me knew somebody in these border guards, and they bribed the border guards. So they would not shoot us. And that's how I crossed the frozen Yellow River into China at the age of 13 in 2007 with my mother. Thank you. Thank you so much. So my chapter with North Korea ended here, and my new life begins in China. And I had no idea what was going to wait for me. Oh, very first thing. that I got to witness in China. As soon as I got to China inside of the riverbank, it's the Yellow River, I heard this. This man who greeted us, who supposedly were helping us, said, I want to have sex with her. In North Korea, I don't know if you know, there's almost like Georgia where it's double speak. A lot of vocabulary got erased because the regime did not want us to know what those are. So like the words freedom, love, human rights, or even sex got erased. So I simply did not know what it was. My mother, thankfully, at the time offered herself. And then... After she got raped, they brought us into somewhere called a safe house. And then they were negotiating our price. And I couldn't believe it because I have seen people selling puppies in the markets. I've never seen human beings selling each other. Like, how is it possible? I'm not a puppy. Like, how can you possibly sell me? I'm a human being. But China still... believe in human trafficking and human slavery. And because China has one child policy, they are lacking 33 million women right now to marry these eligible Chinese men. So governments in China are worried about these men starting revolution. So they want to somehow appease these angry young men. That's why they are allowing this human trafficking to happen. In that moment, they decided that my mother was going to be sold for $65 and they decided to sell me over $200. I was just about like 50 pounds and half of this size. I asked this man, like, why do I worth more than my mom? I still remember this day. I cannot forget because she looked at me without any flinch in their face. They said, because you're so much valuable than your mom because... A lot of men in China love taking child virginity away. So you're valuable. And that's how I got separated from my mother. And I was all alone in China. When I was told another trafficker to be raped, I decided to end my life because there was no way to continue my life. I couldn't bear the shame. But this man offered me a deal. He said, if I do become his sex slave, He was going to help me to find my family because he was the man who sold my mom to a Chinese farmer as a wife. So I became his mistress at 13, and I did bring my mom back after six months later. Two years passed as a sex slave, and by this time, I was 15 years old, and it was 2009, right after Chinese Beijing Olympics. I'm sure a lot of you... here remember Chinese Beijing Olympic. It was the biggest crackdown on North Korean defectors at the time to send us back to North Korea to get killed. And then we had to find a way to get out of China. But there are no place for North Korean women to go because we don't have the ID document, which means we cannot even work as a clean dishes or anywhere. There are three places that North Korean women ending up in China right now and there are 300,000 of us right now in China. First place that we end up is actually to organ harvesters. In China, you know if you order a fresh heart, it comes to you in two hours. How is that possible? Because after all, North Korean women are cheaper than iPhones. We're so available. So they buy us. Second place they buy us are these brothels where they drug the girl and let her be raped for like 500 times a day. And she dies within six months usually from disease and malnutrition. Last place I could end up was a place something called chat rooms. They would give us shelter and food. For that we had to be naked. and showing our naked bodies to men. And I thought, at least this way I don't get raped physically. At least I'm the safest this way. So I decided to go join this chat room. In this chat room, something amazing happened. The man I'm supposed to please with my own body were South Korean men. And at the time I thought, How is it possible that the South Koreans were colonized by America? It was a horrible, hard, bad capitalist country. How do these men have spare money to look at my body? In this chat room I learned South Korea was a great country and capitalist countries are not that scary. We met another woman in this chat room and she said there are missionaries from South Korea rescuing North Korean defectors. And she said, do you want to call them? So I called this missionary up and I told them I want to get out of this situation. And she said. There's a way to go somewhere, be safe and be free. And this is the very first time I heard the word free. And I asked this missionary, what do you mean I'm going to be free? Because that was not a concept for me. How would you explain freedom to a North Korean girl? They did a perfect job. She said, if you go to South Korea, you can wear jeans and you can watch K-dramas. And nobody's going to arrest you for that. And I was like, I couldn't believe where there's a country individuals have that much freedom and options. So I said, well, I'm going to risk my life for that. And I told them, so how do I go to this country called South Korea? They said, if you're going to do that, we cannot really go with you because the chance of making is not even 1%. You need only God to survive, so we're going to give you a compass. With a compass, You have to walk across frozen Gobi Desert from China to Mongolia. And if somehow you don't get killed in this desert, then you need to tell them that you want to go to South Korea, that you are refugees. I didn't get killed in the Gobi Desert. And by some miracle, I did make it to South Korea in 2009 at the end of the year. And I finally became a free person. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. I was in South Korea for five years, and in South Korea I was learning about this beautiful country called America. It's a beacon of hope, it's a home of the brave, and I wanted to be part of that story, I wanted to come here. And luckily I got an opportunity to study at Columbia University in New York. And I was able to immigrate to America, this time with a paper and legally. And thank you. I got to America in 2016 and with so much excitement. And I couldn't believe how wonderful this generous freedom is. A former sex slave was able to go to Ivy League University. I mean, this is truly the land of opportunity, right? When I got to Columbia University, even right before my class began at the orientation week, my professors told us that we need to be woke. And actually prior year to this, I learned English by watching TV show Friends. So I was very confused. I was like, I'm awake, like how can I be more awake than this? And they said, you need to be outraged. You need to stay angry. Because America is evil, this country must be destroyed. And I was thinking, like, are you a psychopath? What do you mean this country is evil? This country is so tolerant to accept people like me and not discriminating me, like giving me the same chances to anybody who was born here. And they said, America is evil and needs to be destroyed because capitalism produces... inequality. And I was so confused. Like, what do you mean there's inequality? Because in North Korea, there's no mobility. You cannot move up. No matter how smart you are, you never get that chance. And my classmates will say, capitalism is evil because there are homeless people and there are billionaires. And no billionaire would make that money. They say they only take billion dollars. And I couldn't believe what they're saying because Then what you're saying is Steve Jobs somehow came store your money? You didn't go voluntarily bought your MacBook right now that you're using in this classroom? How on earth Steve Jobs like store billion dollars from us? I would rather live in a country where people can become billionaires and innovate and create new things. And then I also had my personal mission. I don't know why God chose me to be one of the survivors because there are 25 million North Koreans are trapped in the biggest concentration in the world and there are 300,000 North Korean women are still daily raped in China. But only 209 of us made it to America over the last 80 years and I am one of that person. So I do have a duty to tell the world. What's happening? So, I went around. I met Hillary Clinton. I've met Jeff Bezos. I met anybody you can imagine that publicly saying that slavery is evil, that they believe in social justice. I got to meet them. I told them the role that China plays. They wrote, China sponsors dictatorship in China. Whenever I told them this, they told me, Please do not tell people that you know me. These are hypocrites. And all these people in publicly denouncing slavery, none of them actually believe what they're saying. And then they call me, I'm a CIA spy, and I'm a liar. So I am here, and I don't know why this is happening, but I also see this America declining. I'm a mother right now. I have a son. And thank you. Thank you so much. And his birth certificate. His mother is from North Korea, and his father is born in America. Thank you. If I were in North Korea, my son would have got killed by the regime, because North Korean regime does not believe in mixing blood. He can only exist because America is this great and is free. So, with my journey to free North Korea, now I am defending freedom in America. And that's why I'm so grateful for this opportunity to raise awareness about North Korean people. But also we recognize the threat that we are facing. Threats that facing in America is basically what China wants us to be. To going into chaos. and stop believing in freedom. And we can become another puppet state for them like North Korea is. So, I'm so grateful that you recognize this threat and recognize also the value of freedom. And thank you so much for YAF for giving me this platform. Thank you everyone. I look forward to Q&A with you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Hello, we will now begin Q&A. We have lines on both sides of the room. Be sure to state your name and your school and ask your brief question. Howdy, Ms. Park. My name is Houston and I attend Texas A&M University. Hello! So, my question involves the, I guess, tourism in North Korea. So, as you know, many people travel to dangerous countries. People go to Somalia, Mali, even Afghanistan. So I know that tourists that go to North Korea, everything that they're shown is fake. It's not real. For example, like the famine that's currently ongoing. Americans can't go, but if they could go, what do you say to these people that decide to travel or want to do it for the educational experience? Oh, yeah, that's a really good question, because until the auto-wombier, the Americans from Virginia Tech died, tortured in North Korea, it was legal to go to North Korea and travel there. And then a lot of people that I met would tell me, there's no salvation in North Korea because they saw it. They went to North Korea, and they didn't see anybody dying from salvation. So in some sense, Kim Jong-un, do you guys know this TikTok? trend recently that I heard called a family father that North Korean song is going around everywhere. Oh, wow, you guys are definitely not TikTok people. I mean, these are definitely conservatives. So it was a huge thing in South Korea, too. The North Korean regime tried to brainwash both sides. They really want to make sure... The reason why the journalists cannot go to North Korea and see what's happening because They don't want them to see what's happening inside, really, right? So they want us to believe that North Korea is a great country and there's no human rights violation, and the people cannot come out and tell their stories, and they go after people like me who are telling what's happening. And because of that, you've got to be extremely cautious. What you'll see is that I'll be kind of seeing a Disney World here coming back and saying that was what whole America was about. And because of that, it's a very good, cautious thing to have. And another thing is... It's just morally wrong, you know? When people say, like, oh, North Korea is so fascinating, I know they say that in a good intention, but there are people dying from starvation, and you don't want to go there and, like, we're showing off your freedom, showing off your money, and, hey, you cannot get out, but I can come in, right? So in some sense, use that same energy and money. I would rather you... to rescue North Korean defectors. There are ways actually you can free North Korean women right now. You need two thousand dollars then you can bring one North Korean defector from China to freedom. There are real ways to make difference. I think it's just the fact people don't know and that's why. So thank you for that question. Thank you. Hello, hello. My name is Nikolai Ramisov, St. Louis University. You may remember me, right? Hi, Du! How are you doing? Good, thank you! So, I have actually a really interesting question. It's actually two small questions. The first one is, what's the most things that you memorized from North Korea? Like something like, you can like, I remember it 100%, like some maybe situation happened, like something like I fully remember it. And the second one, do you see also maybe in the Instagram shorts? there is like a trend i don't know how but they get a bunch of videos from north korea showing that how life in north korea is good maybe some of you've seen it is there a lot a lot of these videos so like what do you think about it is it like really like where these videos may be coming from also interesting yeah uh i think the one thing that i remember still and i told the people they couldn't believe it so in north korea it's a mandatory to have a radio at home and uh this radio Always constantly blasting with the propaganda materials. And we can turn down the volume a little bit, but we cannot, there's no off switch. So there's no way of you not listening to this propaganda materials. And then when I was reading 1984, I was like, wow, Kim Il Sung copied George Orwell. Like he got the idea from this book, right? Thankfully, North Korea couldn't afford electricity, so I didn't have to be tortured that much. Every single day, I'm hearing that. About this propaganda video that North Korea produces, it's like they realize there's a lot of American youth that are fantasizing about socialism, and now they are creating this content to try to inform them, you know, socialist paradise exists, and they should keep fighting for socialism. So now there's another propaganda... a movement coming from the regime and try to sway everyone here right now and make them believe that after all, socialism is a better system. So thank you for the question. Yeah, thank you so much. Hi, I watched your interview with Jordan Peterson before, so it's kind of been a dream to meet you for a long time. Your story is absolutely inspirational. My name is Zoe Johnson. I go to the University of Colorado at Boulder. And I don't know if you know anything about it, but it's the California of Colorado where I am. Anyways, I know from listening to your story that you've converted to Christianity. So I'd imagine that helps in the recovery process of everything you've gone through. My question for you is how do you deal with grief knowing everything that you've gone through? You've probably endured more than anyone in this room has ever endured. I don't know that there's anyone in this room. room who's met someone who has endured everything that you have. So my question for you is, how do you deal with grief? Oh, thank you. Actually, I've been to university. I got to see the situation myself. But how do I deal with even trauma, right? When I was writing my first book, my editors in New York told me, Yomi, you need to go see a therapist. And I was like, what's a therapist? She's like, you are traumatized, you have PTSD. And she said, oh, she's charged like 70, 50 bucks per hour, but for you, she's only charged $250. I was like, no thank you, you know. At the time, my perspective was, what is the point of me surviving it all if I'm going to spend the rest of my life about complaining how hard it was? But... Now, but yeah, but now I actually know that I am actually one of the luckiest people alive. Right? There are people that overcame World War II. There are people like our founding fathers came here, they starved too. It's not that I'm the only person that suffered, right? Life, so I think that perspective, it really humbles you. And the people who overcame greater pain than I did, and did much more important things afterwards. And I think one thing that you do learn when you go through actual hardship, It's the perspective, because it can be a lot worse. I could have been those 300,000 North Korean women right now are still trapped, not knowing what freedom is. And so I really have nothing to grieve about or complaining about. Only thing I should feel is gratitude every second that I live. So thank you for that. Thank you so much. Hello, my name is Ulysses Macias from the University of Illinois at Chicago. And my question is very simple. I want to ask you how we can restore faith and maybe a chance for students and children growing up in Chicago who are only exposed to liberal ideas and are taught to fear the conservatives and never look that way. So how can we restore that faith and pursue the happiness for children in Chicago? Yeah, I lived in Chicago for several years myself and I witnessed it. very closely. It's appalling what children are going through in this public education system, even in private schools or indoctrination camp, right? It's not that different. Oh, when I was at Columbia, I remember my classmates believed that math is racist. Math is made up by white men to control minority. And this is a lesson that I learned in North King classroom. My teacher one day said, you know, like, what is one plus one? And I said two, and she said wrong. My dear little Kim Jong-il discovered when you add one drop of water to another drop of water, it becomes bigger one, not two. That's how Kim Jong-il proved math is fake. This nonsense is taught in America right now at the most elite Ivy League school system, right? So there's something so wrong with it, but I still think it's still the personal responsibility. parents'job to educate our children. It's not a government that cannot fix our children or anything. I do think still if parents are awake and make sure that our children understand the full picture, I don't think it's possible for them to be fully, unbelievably brainwashed. So yeah, it's a self-government. It's always a personal responsibility, and I hope parents are the ones who step up. and fix this for their children right now. So, yeah, thank you for that. Hello, Mrs. Park. Thank you for coming. I remember listening to a video with you years ago, and it really struck me. It was almost infuriating to know that there's a place in the world where people are enduring such travesties. And I don't know if you're... A Christian person, but in the Bible we're taught that you can know someone by their fruits, and you seem to be somebody with integrity. And I think that the true measure of our lives ultimately boils down to our integrity. And I think that to be somebody with integrity, when you recognize a problem, you have to speak about it. But one thing that I've recognized, especially among Christians, is when we speak about things that are challenging or alarming, sometimes we're accused as b******. being inflammatory and I wanted to know what you think we can do to share about the challenges that we face of our time that don't alienate people that don't come across as inflammatory yeah I think I get that a lot you know I mean they left I mean accused me of literally everything that you can imagine under the So I'm like, I'm accused for every single thing. But ultimately, it doesn't really matter what these idiots think, right? I mean, thank you. But do I really care what people, like the people does not even know what woman is? Think about me. Absolutely not, right? It has no meaning to me whatsoever. You know yourself. God knows who you are. and your family knows who you are. And I think the most important thing is that not about none of these people, it's yourself, your family, your God, and your family and your country. So if you're focusing on that, I don't think it's this kind of accusation or cancel culture should scare you or anybody. It's just noise. Yeah, so thank you. Thank you so much. Hi, my name is Blake Habersetzer. I attend Benedictine College. First of all, I really wanted to thank you for sharing your testimony today. It was really quite incredible. My question for you is simple. How has witnessing and growing up in North Korea, and especially witnessing the sacrifice of your mother for you, changed your perspective on motherhood now that you are raising your son? Yeah, I think in some sense that was the biggest blessing that I was given. That even though I grew up in a country where there's no Mother's Day, you know, Kim Jong-un got so jealous that he banned Mother's Day. He thought if we love our mothers, we would not love them as much. So the first thing I learned from my teachers was hating my parents. They said, if your parents say something disloyal against government, you need to come tell us. But despite that, I loved my mom without knowing what that was. And she showed through her actions what love really was. So because somebody cared about me and somebody believed in me, I think in the darkest moment, I never gave up because of that. So love is so powerful, and I think love is what matters in life. So, yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hi Mrs. Park, my name is Kenny and I go to the University of Florida. My question to you is, what were your thoughts when you saw President Trump visit North Korea, being the first U.S. president to visit the step foot in North Korea? My thoughts on this has evolved, right? Because at the time, I couldn't believe that why would he go if he sits down with a dictator. He should talk about the human rights abuse, right? And, but his intention at the time was make North Korea less nuclear threat. Because North Korea has actual capability attacking American mainland. And President Trump interest is always America first. And as American, I cannot be more grateful for than that. And at the time, I didn't, couldn't really fathom, but for him, it was. well, I'm going to keep America safe from North Korea's threat. And that's why, for that, he did not really bring up any human rights issues. Now, I don't know what would I want, because, I mean, Biden was so weak. He would call Pyongyang, and North Korea never returned his call for two months. And so it was like Biden couldn't get hold of Kim Jong-un all the time. And for that, at least I want to have a president who can make people to listen to him. and can keep America safe. And of course, nobody can do everything, right? Like, nobody is perfect or so. So I recognize there's a limitation that one president cannot fight for everything. And I do think, still, I'm grateful for that. He was keeping America safe at the time. And under Trump, North Korea was not there to conduct any long-range missile test that would be a threat to American allies or America's mainland. So we were safe under him. He was not lying about that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, we have time for one final question. Okay. Hello, my name is Preston Hale. I'm from Palm Beach Atlantic University. You actually came here to Palm Beach around a year ago. Yeah. But my question is, do you believe that North Korea can eventually achieve freedom and democratic reform? And if so, what steps do you think are necessary to make this a reality? Yeah, it depends on our leaders in America. Change in North Korea is entirely depending on CCP. If CCP today stops giving North Korea oil, nothing else, just stop giving them oil, North Korea cannot conduct missile tests. They don't have natural gas or anything else in there. But no matter what happens, China would never do that. They always give North Korea oil so they can keep testing nukes and maintain the military and the threat. So if anybody in America... In our office, hold China accountable and tell them, do not sponsor dictatorship. Tomorrow, North Korea can be free. So it's really up to China, and I do think America is the only country that can hold China accountable. So it's in our hands. Thank you so much, everyone. And I want to thank all the strength leaders that I visited this year. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you. Enjoy your evening. Thank you so much.

search of a life free from tyranny. She recounts this incredible story in her searing memoir, In Order to Live, a North Korean girl's journey to freedom, in a more recent publication, While It Remains, a North Korean's de facto search for freedom in America. America. She will also be speaking at our annual Road to Freedom seminar this September at the Reagan Ranch. I highly recommend you guys all attend or plan on having her come to your college for this college campus lecture series.

Please join me in welcoming Yeonmi Park. Wow, thank you so much. You might be the only crowd welcoming a human rights activist like this.

Sometimes I feel like I'm a K-pop star here, you know? So, thank you for that warm welcoming. It's such an honor.

And no matter how many times I do this, I still really get nervous. And whenever I get this nervous, I tell myself this one thing. No matter what I do on that stage, I'm not going to be executed at the end of the day.

So don't be scared. Get on there and tell your story. Thank you.

I think that is, in essence, that's the true beauty of living in freedom. Yesterday, I'm sure a lot of you have followed the news cycle, seeing how our capital was insulted. by these terrorists and seeing the American flag was getting burnt.

And I just couldn't believe because when I was in North Korea, my dream and everybody else's dream was actually visiting our capital Pyongyang. In North Korea, no one is allowed to move around without government's permit. Now these people, the people were chanting death to America yesterday, live in a country They give them liberty, speak their mind, and move around and go to their capital.

And they don't realize how unique this country is and how precious this freedom is that we have. And that's why I'm here. I want to talk about my life under socialist paradise. I was born in North Korea in the city called Hae San in the northern part.

The very first thing that I learned as a young girl was, from my mother, was this, don't even whisper, because the birds and mice could hear me. She told me that if I said one thing wrong, it was going to kill three to eight generations of my family. That's how very early on that I learned, just don't even whisper.

It was just too dangerous. I didn't go to school like a normal child. But when I went to North Korean school, the things that I learned was, I'm sure you guys are not surprised by this, I had to call you guys bastards. That was an all-day education, hating American bastards. Even when I had to learn numbers as a kid, it was like this.

There are four American bastards. You kill two of them. How many American bastards left to kill?

And I would be saying, two American bastards. Now I'm an American bastard myself. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And I can be only American myself because your society, freedom, has generosity of grace. It has mercy.

The reason why social societies are so hateful is because there is no mercy. Even though... It's not my fault that I was born in North Korea, calling you guys bastards and hating you with everything I had. Americans believe in mercy. But in North Korea, in socialism, they don't believe in that.

Only thing they believe in is punishment. When I was born in North Korea, I believed that I was living in the most amazing country. The regime made me to sing this song called Nothing to Envy.

Because literally... that North Korea is a paradise on earth. But in this country where we had nothing to envy, we had 51 different castes. People were divided into 51 different classes.

And unfortunately, North Koreans are not like America. We're a homogeneous nation. We have one racist Koreans all eating kimchi, right? How on earth would you divide people into 51 different classes?

They couldn't play the race card like America, so they decided to divide us based on who our ancestors were. If my ancestor, if my great-grandfather was a landowner, they decided that my blood was tainted. My genetics was oppressive. That's how I go into lower ranking of the caste. If your great-grandfather was fought along with Kim Il-sung and Marxists, your blood is royal.

Therefore, you... would be on the top of the cast. So when you're born in North Korea, your life is already determined for you.

Not by your choice, but by your ancestors. And based on that status of caste, government determines who gets fed and who gets to live in prosperity. So I'm on like my five inch high here right now.

But North Koreans are on average five inch shorter than South Koreans. Because of the malnutrition that you experience, the governments use hunger as a tool of control. Have you guys seen the movie Hunger Games?

Yes, or the Red Bull. It's like that. There's a capital, Pyongyang. There's other districts. I was in the northern district.

And they feed people in Pyongyang very well, but the remaining districts are starved. The reason is... Why we are starved? There's no reason for us to be starved. But if we constantly starve, we don't have time to think about freedom or government or anything else other than just finding next meal.

That's all I did in North Korea. If I found something to eat in the breakfast, only thing I had to worry about was finding lunch or dinner. If I make one day in North Korea, I worry about tomorrow.

How do I survive tomorrow? Every single second is a survivor. So you have no time to think about meaning of life or political system. You're constantly worrying about surviving. And that is why governments are keeping us starved the entire time.

By the time when I was 13 years old, it was 2007, I no longer couldn't find anything else. Usually my diet consists of eating dragonflies, grasshoppers. I see so many of my friends in New York City right now fantasizing about eating these insects to save climate.

I'm like, are you joking me? They are disgusting. That's not an innovation or progress, right?

If you go to North Korea, if anybody believes that you can do that, every day you're going to eat insects. You're never going to eat chicken or steak. But by the time it was 2007, it was March. I was really surprised when I came to the free world where spring was a symbol of a renewal, hope.

In North Korea, spring is a season of death because crops don't grow in the spring. Still things are frozen, and people who maintain the collecting during the fall and survive the winter, usually March is where the most people die from starvation. So I could not find gather or anything in the nature.

And luckily, I was living in the border town of North Korea, and I saw the lights like this coming from that side. Have you ever seen North Korean satellite picture at nighttime? It is the darkest place in the world right now.

They don't even have electricity. So in that darkness, I saw some lights from Chinese side and I just guessed maybe if I go where the lights are I might be able to find a bowl of rice how simple is that as 13 years old but I thought about this with my own sister at the time who was 16 years old we initially wanted to go to China escape there together but I got extremely sick so she left first I followed her seven days later And my sister luckily left me a note saying, go find this lady, she will help you to come to China and find me. I found the lady that my sister told me to find.

And this lady, by somehow, I don't know why, but she wanted to help me to go to China. Crossing the North Korean border into China is not like crossing American-Sodom border right now. It's not like, welcome, come, right? It's the land mines, the electrified wire fences, machine guns with the guards, ready to shoot anybody. They have something called the shoot to kill order, which means you don't need to interrogate or verify.

You can just shoot anybody who's on the border. Of course, that's not cool. But the lady who was helping me knew somebody in these border guards, and they bribed the border guards.

So they would not shoot us. And that's how I crossed the frozen Yellow River into China at the age of 13 in 2007 with my mother. Thank you.

Thank you so much. So my chapter with North Korea ended here, and my new life begins in China. And I had no idea what was going to wait for me.

Oh, very first thing. that I got to witness in China. As soon as I got to China inside of the riverbank, it's the Yellow River, I heard this.

This man who greeted us, who supposedly were helping us, said, I want to have sex with her. In North Korea, I don't know if you know, there's almost like Georgia where it's double speak. A lot of vocabulary got erased because the regime did not want us to know what those are.

So like the words freedom, love, human rights, or even sex got erased. So I simply did not know what it was. My mother, thankfully, at the time offered herself.

And then... After she got raped, they brought us into somewhere called a safe house. And then they were negotiating our price.

And I couldn't believe it because I have seen people selling puppies in the markets. I've never seen human beings selling each other. Like, how is it possible?

I'm not a puppy. Like, how can you possibly sell me? I'm a human being.

But China still... believe in human trafficking and human slavery. And because China has one child policy, they are lacking 33 million women right now to marry these eligible Chinese men. So governments in China are worried about these men starting revolution. So they want to somehow appease these angry young men.

That's why they are allowing this human trafficking to happen. In that moment, they decided that my mother was going to be sold for $65 and they decided to sell me over $200. I was just about like 50 pounds and half of this size. I asked this man, like, why do I worth more than my mom?

I still remember this day. I cannot forget because she looked at me without any flinch in their face. They said, because you're so much valuable than your mom because... A lot of men in China love taking child virginity away. So you're valuable.

And that's how I got separated from my mother. And I was all alone in China. When I was told another trafficker to be raped, I decided to end my life because there was no way to continue my life. I couldn't bear the shame.

But this man offered me a deal. He said, if I do become his sex slave, He was going to help me to find my family because he was the man who sold my mom to a Chinese farmer as a wife. So I became his mistress at 13, and I did bring my mom back after six months later.

Two years passed as a sex slave, and by this time, I was 15 years old, and it was 2009, right after Chinese Beijing Olympics. I'm sure a lot of you... here remember Chinese Beijing Olympic. It was the biggest crackdown on North Korean defectors at the time to send us back to North Korea to get killed. And then we had to find a way to get out of China.

But there are no place for North Korean women to go because we don't have the ID document, which means we cannot even work as a clean dishes or anywhere. There are three places that North Korean women ending up in China right now and there are 300,000 of us right now in China. First place that we end up is actually to organ harvesters.

In China, you know if you order a fresh heart, it comes to you in two hours. How is that possible? Because after all, North Korean women are cheaper than iPhones. We're so available. So they buy us.

Second place they buy us are these brothels where they drug the girl and let her be raped for like 500 times a day. And she dies within six months usually from disease and malnutrition. Last place I could end up was a place something called chat rooms. They would give us shelter and food. For that we had to be naked.

and showing our naked bodies to men. And I thought, at least this way I don't get raped physically. At least I'm the safest this way. So I decided to go join this chat room. In this chat room, something amazing happened.

The man I'm supposed to please with my own body were South Korean men. And at the time I thought, How is it possible that the South Koreans were colonized by America? It was a horrible, hard, bad capitalist country.

How do these men have spare money to look at my body? In this chat room I learned South Korea was a great country and capitalist countries are not that scary. We met another woman in this chat room and she said there are missionaries from South Korea rescuing North Korean defectors. And she said, do you want to call them? So I called this missionary up and I told them I want to get out of this situation.

And she said. There's a way to go somewhere, be safe and be free. And this is the very first time I heard the word free. And I asked this missionary, what do you mean I'm going to be free? Because that was not a concept for me.

How would you explain freedom to a North Korean girl? They did a perfect job. She said, if you go to South Korea, you can wear jeans and you can watch K-dramas. And nobody's going to arrest you for that. And I was like, I couldn't believe where there's a country individuals have that much freedom and options.

So I said, well, I'm going to risk my life for that. And I told them, so how do I go to this country called South Korea? They said, if you're going to do that, we cannot really go with you because the chance of making is not even 1%. You need only God to survive, so we're going to give you a compass.

With a compass, You have to walk across frozen Gobi Desert from China to Mongolia. And if somehow you don't get killed in this desert, then you need to tell them that you want to go to South Korea, that you are refugees. I didn't get killed in the Gobi Desert.

And by some miracle, I did make it to South Korea in 2009 at the end of the year. And I finally became a free person. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I was in South Korea for five years, and in South Korea I was learning about this beautiful country called America. It's a beacon of hope, it's a home of the brave, and I wanted to be part of that story, I wanted to come here.

And luckily I got an opportunity to study at Columbia University in New York. And I was able to immigrate to America, this time with a paper and legally. And thank you.

I got to America in 2016 and with so much excitement. And I couldn't believe how wonderful this generous freedom is. A former sex slave was able to go to Ivy League University.

I mean, this is truly the land of opportunity, right? When I got to Columbia University, even right before my class began at the orientation week, my professors told us that we need to be woke. And actually prior year to this, I learned English by watching TV show Friends. So I was very confused.

I was like, I'm awake, like how can I be more awake than this? And they said, you need to be outraged. You need to stay angry.

Because America is evil, this country must be destroyed. And I was thinking, like, are you a psychopath? What do you mean this country is evil?

This country is so tolerant to accept people like me and not discriminating me, like giving me the same chances to anybody who was born here. And they said, America is evil and needs to be destroyed because capitalism produces... inequality. And I was so confused. Like, what do you mean there's inequality?

Because in North Korea, there's no mobility. You cannot move up. No matter how smart you are, you never get that chance. And my classmates will say, capitalism is evil because there are homeless people and there are billionaires.

And no billionaire would make that money. They say they only take billion dollars. And I couldn't believe what they're saying because Then what you're saying is Steve Jobs somehow came store your money? You didn't go voluntarily bought your MacBook right now that you're using in this classroom?

How on earth Steve Jobs like store billion dollars from us? I would rather live in a country where people can become billionaires and innovate and create new things. And then I also had my personal mission.

I don't know why God chose me to be one of the survivors because there are 25 million North Koreans are trapped in the biggest concentration in the world and there are 300,000 North Korean women are still daily raped in China. But only 209 of us made it to America over the last 80 years and I am one of that person. So I do have a duty to tell the world.

What's happening? So, I went around. I met Hillary Clinton. I've met Jeff Bezos. I met anybody you can imagine that publicly saying that slavery is evil, that they believe in social justice.

I got to meet them. I told them the role that China plays. They wrote, China sponsors dictatorship in China.

Whenever I told them this, they told me, Please do not tell people that you know me. These are hypocrites. And all these people in publicly denouncing slavery, none of them actually believe what they're saying. And then they call me, I'm a CIA spy, and I'm a liar.

So I am here, and I don't know why this is happening, but I also see this America declining. I'm a mother right now. I have a son.

And thank you. Thank you so much. And his birth certificate.

His mother is from North Korea, and his father is born in America. Thank you. If I were in North Korea, my son would have got killed by the regime, because North Korean regime does not believe in mixing blood.

He can only exist because America is this great and is free. So, with my journey to free North Korea, now I am defending freedom in America. And that's why I'm so grateful for this opportunity to raise awareness about North Korean people. But also we recognize the threat that we are facing. Threats that facing in America is basically what China wants us to be.

To going into chaos. and stop believing in freedom. And we can become another puppet state for them like North Korea is. So, I'm so grateful that you recognize this threat and recognize also the value of freedom. And thank you so much for YAF for giving me this platform.

Thank you everyone. I look forward to Q&A with you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, Hello, we will now begin Q&A. We have lines on both sides of the room. Be sure to state your name and your school and ask your brief question.

Howdy, Ms. Park. My name is Houston and I attend Texas A&M University. Hello! So, my question involves the, I guess, tourism in North Korea. So, as you know, many people travel to dangerous countries.

People go to Somalia, Mali, even Afghanistan. So I know that tourists that go to North Korea, everything that they're shown is fake. It's not real. For example, like the famine that's currently ongoing.

Americans can't go, but if they could go, what do you say to these people that decide to travel or want to do it for the educational experience? Oh, yeah, that's a really good question, because until the auto-wombier, the Americans from Virginia Tech died, tortured in North Korea, it was legal to go to North Korea and travel there. And then a lot of people that I met would tell me, there's no salvation in North Korea because they saw it. They went to North Korea, and they didn't see anybody dying from salvation.

So in some sense, Kim Jong-un, do you guys know this TikTok? trend recently that I heard called a family father that North Korean song is going around everywhere. Oh, wow, you guys are definitely not TikTok people. I mean, these are definitely conservatives. So it was a huge thing in South Korea, too.

The North Korean regime tried to brainwash both sides. They really want to make sure... The reason why the journalists cannot go to North Korea and see what's happening because They don't want them to see what's happening inside, really, right?

So they want us to believe that North Korea is a great country and there's no human rights violation, and the people cannot come out and tell their stories, and they go after people like me who are telling what's happening. And because of that, you've got to be extremely cautious. What you'll see is that I'll be kind of seeing a Disney World here coming back and saying that was what whole America was about. And because of that, it's a very good, cautious thing to have. And another thing is...

It's just morally wrong, you know? When people say, like, oh, North Korea is so fascinating, I know they say that in a good intention, but there are people dying from starvation, and you don't want to go there and, like, we're showing off your freedom, showing off your money, and, hey, you cannot get out, but I can come in, right? So in some sense, use that same energy and money.

I would rather you... to rescue North Korean defectors. There are ways actually you can free North Korean women right now. You need two thousand dollars then you can bring one North Korean defector from China to freedom. There are real ways to make difference.

I think it's just the fact people don't know and that's why. So thank you for that question. Thank you.

Hello, hello. My name is Nikolai Ramisov, St. Louis University. You may remember me, right? Hi, Du! How are you doing?

Good, thank you! So, I have actually a really interesting question. It's actually two small questions.

The first one is, what's the most things that you memorized from North Korea? Like something like, you can like, I remember it 100%, like some maybe situation happened, like something like I fully remember it. And the second one, do you see also maybe in the Instagram shorts? there is like a trend i don't know how but they get a bunch of videos from north korea showing that how life in north korea is good maybe some of you've seen it is there a lot a lot of these videos so like what do you think about it is it like really like where these videos may be coming from also interesting yeah uh i think the one thing that i remember still and i told the people they couldn't believe it so in north korea it's a mandatory to have a radio at home and uh this radio Always constantly blasting with the propaganda materials. And we can turn down the volume a little bit, but we cannot, there's no off switch.

So there's no way of you not listening to this propaganda materials. And then when I was reading 1984, I was like, wow, Kim Il Sung copied George Orwell. Like he got the idea from this book, right? Thankfully, North Korea couldn't afford electricity, so I didn't have to be tortured that much.

Every single day, I'm hearing that. About this propaganda video that North Korea produces, it's like they realize there's a lot of American youth that are fantasizing about socialism, and now they are creating this content to try to inform them, you know, socialist paradise exists, and they should keep fighting for socialism. So now there's another propaganda... a movement coming from the regime and try to sway everyone here right now and make them believe that after all, socialism is a better system.

So thank you for the question. Yeah, thank you so much. Hi, I watched your interview with Jordan Peterson before, so it's kind of been a dream to meet you for a long time. Your story is absolutely inspirational.

My name is Zoe Johnson. I go to the University of Colorado at Boulder. And I don't know if you know anything about it, but it's the California of Colorado where I am.

Anyways, I know from listening to your story that you've converted to Christianity. So I'd imagine that helps in the recovery process of everything you've gone through. My question for you is how do you deal with grief knowing everything that you've gone through? You've probably endured more than anyone in this room has ever endured. I don't know that there's anyone in this room.

room who's met someone who has endured everything that you have. So my question for you is, how do you deal with grief? Oh, thank you.

Actually, I've been to university. I got to see the situation myself. But how do I deal with even trauma, right?

When I was writing my first book, my editors in New York told me, Yomi, you need to go see a therapist. And I was like, what's a therapist? She's like, you are traumatized, you have PTSD. And she said, oh, she's charged like 70, 50 bucks per hour, but for you, she's only charged $250. I was like, no thank you, you know.

At the time, my perspective was, what is the point of me surviving it all if I'm going to spend the rest of my life about complaining how hard it was? But... Now, but yeah, but now I actually know that I am actually one of the luckiest people alive. Right? There are people that overcame World War II.

There are people like our founding fathers came here, they starved too. It's not that I'm the only person that suffered, right? Life, so I think that perspective, it really humbles you. And the people who overcame greater pain than I did, and did much more important things afterwards. And I think one thing that you do learn when you go through actual hardship, It's the perspective, because it can be a lot worse.

I could have been those 300,000 North Korean women right now are still trapped, not knowing what freedom is. And so I really have nothing to grieve about or complaining about. Only thing I should feel is gratitude every second that I live.

So thank you for that. Thank you so much. Hello, my name is Ulysses Macias from the University of Illinois at Chicago. And my question is very simple.

I want to ask you how we can restore faith and maybe a chance for students and children growing up in Chicago who are only exposed to liberal ideas and are taught to fear the conservatives and never look that way. So how can we restore that faith and pursue the happiness for children in Chicago? Yeah, I lived in Chicago for several years myself and I witnessed it.

very closely. It's appalling what children are going through in this public education system, even in private schools or indoctrination camp, right? It's not that different. Oh, when I was at Columbia, I remember my classmates believed that math is racist. Math is made up by white men to control minority.

And this is a lesson that I learned in North King classroom. My teacher one day said, you know, like, what is one plus one? And I said two, and she said wrong.

My dear little Kim Jong-il discovered when you add one drop of water to another drop of water, it becomes bigger one, not two. That's how Kim Jong-il proved math is fake. This nonsense is taught in America right now at the most elite Ivy League school system, right? So there's something so wrong with it, but I still think it's still the personal responsibility.

parents'job to educate our children. It's not a government that cannot fix our children or anything. I do think still if parents are awake and make sure that our children understand the full picture, I don't think it's possible for them to be fully, unbelievably brainwashed. So yeah, it's a self-government.

It's always a personal responsibility, and I hope parents are the ones who step up. and fix this for their children right now. So, yeah, thank you for that. Hello, Mrs. Park.

Thank you for coming. I remember listening to a video with you years ago, and it really struck me. It was almost infuriating to know that there's a place in the world where people are enduring such travesties.

And I don't know if you're... A Christian person, but in the Bible we're taught that you can know someone by their fruits, and you seem to be somebody with integrity. And I think that the true measure of our lives ultimately boils down to our integrity.

And I think that to be somebody with integrity, when you recognize a problem, you have to speak about it. But one thing that I've recognized, especially among Christians, is when we speak about things that are challenging or alarming, sometimes we're accused as b******. being inflammatory and I wanted to know what you think we can do to share about the challenges that we face of our time that don't alienate people that don't come across as inflammatory yeah I think I get that a lot you know I mean they left I mean accused me of literally everything that you can imagine under the So I'm like, I'm accused for every single thing. But ultimately, it doesn't really matter what these idiots think, right? I mean, thank you.

But do I really care what people, like the people does not even know what woman is? Think about me. Absolutely not, right? It has no meaning to me whatsoever. You know yourself.

God knows who you are. and your family knows who you are. And I think the most important thing is that not about none of these people, it's yourself, your family, your God, and your family and your country. So if you're focusing on that, I don't think it's this kind of accusation or cancel culture should scare you or anybody.

It's just noise. Yeah, so thank you. Thank you so much.

Hi, my name is Blake Habersetzer. I attend Benedictine College. First of all, I really wanted to thank you for sharing your testimony today. It was really quite incredible.

My question for you is simple. How has witnessing and growing up in North Korea, and especially witnessing the sacrifice of your mother for you, changed your perspective on motherhood now that you are raising your son? Yeah, I think in some sense that was the biggest blessing that I was given.

That even though I grew up in a country where there's no Mother's Day, you know, Kim Jong-un got so jealous that he banned Mother's Day. He thought if we love our mothers, we would not love them as much. So the first thing I learned from my teachers was hating my parents. They said, if your parents say something disloyal against government, you need to come tell us. But despite that, I loved my mom without knowing what that was.

And she showed through her actions what love really was. So because somebody cared about me and somebody believed in me, I think in the darkest moment, I never gave up because of that. So love is so powerful, and I think love is what matters in life. So, yeah.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Hi Mrs. Park, my name is Kenny and I go to the University of Florida.

My question to you is, what were your thoughts when you saw President Trump visit North Korea, being the first U.S. president to visit the step foot in North Korea? My thoughts on this has evolved, right? Because at the time, I couldn't believe that why would he go if he sits down with a dictator. He should talk about the human rights abuse, right?

And, but his intention at the time was make North Korea less nuclear threat. Because North Korea has actual capability attacking American mainland. And President Trump interest is always America first. And as American, I cannot be more grateful for than that.

And at the time, I didn't, couldn't really fathom, but for him, it was. well, I'm going to keep America safe from North Korea's threat. And that's why, for that, he did not really bring up any human rights issues.

Now, I don't know what would I want, because, I mean, Biden was so weak. He would call Pyongyang, and North Korea never returned his call for two months. And so it was like Biden couldn't get hold of Kim Jong-un all the time.

And for that, at least I want to have a president who can make people to listen to him. and can keep America safe. And of course, nobody can do everything, right? Like, nobody is perfect or so.

So I recognize there's a limitation that one president cannot fight for everything. And I do think, still, I'm grateful for that. He was keeping America safe at the time. And under Trump, North Korea was not there to conduct any long-range missile test that would be a threat to American allies or America's mainland. So we were safe under him.

He was not lying about that. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Okay, we have time for one final question. Okay. Hello, my name is Preston Hale.

I'm from Palm Beach Atlantic University. You actually came here to Palm Beach around a year ago. Yeah. But my question is, do you believe that North Korea can eventually achieve freedom and democratic reform?

And if so, what steps do you think are necessary to make this a reality? Yeah, it depends on our leaders in America. Change in North Korea is entirely depending on CCP.

If CCP today stops giving North Korea oil, nothing else, just stop giving them oil, North Korea cannot conduct missile tests. They don't have natural gas or anything else in there. But no matter what happens, China would never do that. They always give North Korea oil so they can keep testing nukes and maintain the military and the threat.

So if anybody in America... In our office, hold China accountable and tell them, do not sponsor dictatorship. Tomorrow, North Korea can be free.

So it's really up to China, and I do think America is the only country that can hold China accountable. So it's in our hands. Thank you so much, everyone.

And I want to thank all the strength leaders that I visited this year. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you. Enjoy your evening. Thank you so much.

Transcript for:Yeonmi Park's Inspiring Journey to Freedom

Transcript for:
Yeonmi Park's Inspiring Journey to Freedom