Life in north korea free#

In an interview with The Post, Park called on the international community to condemn ChinaвЂ™s sponsorship of the regime and said her sources in Pyongyang have confirmed that Kim is alive and well despite reports he is in a coma. North KoreaвЂ™s leader, Kim Jong Un REUTERS So itвЂ™s a very emotional thing for me,вЂќ she said.

Life in north korea free#

Even after I went through all of that to be free, IвЂ™m not free to dictators there. вЂњI donвЂ™t know if theyвЂ™ve been executed or sent to prison camps, so IвЂ™m still not free. Park continued her education in Seoul before moving in 2014 to New York City, where she began speaking out against Kim Jong UnвЂ™s regime, at great risk to her own safety. With the help of Christian missionaries, Park and her mom fled to Mongolia, crossing the Gobi Desert and eventually finding refuge in South Korea, where they were reunited with her sister. They managed to smuggle ParkвЂ™s father across the border, but he later died of colon cancer. The pair searched hopelessly for ParkвЂ™s older sister, who had fled the dictatorship earlier. They were both sold to Chinese men, with ParkвЂ™s first owner paying less than $300 for her. APДЄfter fleeing and crossing into China over the frozen Yalu River, ParkвЂ™s mother was raped by human traffickers. If they would spend just 20 percent of what they spent on making nuclear weapons, nobody would have to die in North Korea from hunger but the regime chose to make us hungry.вЂќ Soldiers march across Kim Il Sung Square during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. вЂњNorth Korea spends billions of dollars to make this nuke test system. вЂњI have visited slums in Mumbai, I have visited slums in other countries, but nothing is like North Korea because North Korean starvation, itвЂ™s a systematic starvation by a country that chose to starve us,вЂќ she continued. I never thought that was something unusual,вЂќ she said. It was something normal for us to see the dead bodies on the street. Both her uncle and grandmother died from malnutrition. Park describes growing up eating insects to survive and blames the ruling Kim family for letting their people starve to death. North Korean farmers work in a field along a highway outside the eastern coastal city of Wonsan. Roughly 40 percent of the countryвЂ™s population, more than 10 million people, are starving and face severe food shortages, according to the United Nations. While the world is familiar with KimвЂ™s deadly nuclear testing program, Park is one of the few defectors who have made it out alive and are able to blow the whistle on the horrific conditions inside the rogue regime. ThereвЂ™s no concept of friends,вЂќ she said. In school, children are taught to count using metrics like вЂњAmerican bastardsвЂќ and are forced to do вЂњcriticism sessionsвЂќ where they attack and find faults in their classmates, sewing mistrust and division. APДЄs children, Park and her sister were taught that the late supreme leader Kim Jong Il and his son Kim Jong Un were gods who had the power to read peopleвЂ™s thoughts, making everyday citizens too afraid to speak or think ill of the brutal tyrants. When I was growing up there, I didnвЂ™t know that I was isolated, I didnвЂ™t know that I was praying to a dictator.вЂќ North Korean dancers perform in front of portraits of the nationвЂ™s late leaders, Kim Il Sung (left) and his son Kim Jong Il, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea. вЂњBut North Korea has been so completely purged from the rest of the world, itвЂ™s literally a Hermit Kingdom. вЂњIn those countries, you have some kind of understanding that they are abnormal, they are isolated and the people are not safe.вЂќ вЂњWhat you need to know about North Korea is that itвЂ™s not like other countries like Iran or Cuba,вЂќ she said. Now 26, the Chicago woman is a human rights activist, and in an interview with The Post this week, described the hell of growing up in one of the worldвЂ™s most brutal dictatorships, calling it a modern-day Holocaust. Park is just one of several hundred North Korean defectors who have escaped to the United States after she and her mother fled in 2007 when she was just 13 years old. It was part of everyday life to see people dying of starvation on the streets and with no electricity, ParkвЂ™s life was ensconced in total darkness and freezing cold. Her parents never told her they loved her. Growing up in North Korea, Yeonmi Park did not know of the concepts of love or friendship.Д®veryone was a вЂњcomradeвЂќ and feelings of adoration were reserved for the rogue regimeвЂ™s supreme leader alone. Kim Jong Un all smiles watching extreme martial arts performance 'We are not discussing war': North Korea launches ballistic missiles into waters off JapanДЇootage shows Kim Jong Un enjoying bizarre display of force by shirtless soldiers US calls on North Korea to stop missile tests, resume nuclear talks