In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park
Yeonmi Park tells her personal story of her escape from North Korea in the autobiography In Order to Live. She recalls her childhood in North Korea, where she was malnourished and often starving. Her family went through ups and downs with the money that they had, as they had to depend on selling items on the black market to survive. Her father got sentenced to one of the prison camps in North Korea after being caught transporting illegal items, and was brutally treated and tortured. At the age of thirteen, Yeonmi and her mother decided to escape to China, expecting freedom and being able to see Yeonmi's sister, Eunmi who had gone beforehand. However, they fell into the hands of human traffickers, and were raped, sexually abused, and sold for little money to different brokers. They barely escaped to Mongolia, and were helped by pastors and Koreans there to flee to South Korea.
Reading about Yeonmi Park's life and the extreme hardships and suffering she faced opened my eyes to the realities that people in North Korea have gone through, and still go through today. The fact that the summary that I wrote above wasn't even half of the things Yeonmi wrote about shows just how much she dealt with at such a young age. The autobiography was really well-written, and she conveyed the emotions that she felt during the different periods of her life into the book well. I liked how she provided a lot of information about the history and government in North Korea, because I was able to learn and grasp more of an understanding of North Korea. The book was also extremely powerful, as reading about her going through horrible experiences and coming out successfully by attending university and eventually speaking at numerous places around the world was something really inspiring to me. I would highly, highly recommend this book to everyone; it was one of the best books I've read in a while.
After reading, I did a bit of research to see if there was any way I could help with what's happening in North Korea. I found this non-profit organization, Liberty in North Korea. Liberty in North Korea helps North Korean refugees escape through a 3,000 mile secret rescue route. They have already helped over 1200 people escape, and continue to work and reach out to the North Korean people. You can donate to their website, and they also have merchandise that you can buy where all of the proceeds go to help the refugees! I would highly recommend checking their website out and reading about the work that they do. Here's the website: https://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/.
Thanks for reading!!
-Maddie
This book sounds really interesting! I do not know many details about life in North Korea and I am interested in learning more. Her story sounds really sad and inspiring. I like how you mentioned that she also gives information about the government and history of North Korea because I think that would help me get a better understanding of the what happened to her. I also think it is really cool that you found this website to help people escape from North Korea! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThe way your describing the book makes it sound like it is providing a very important personal aspect to the terrible abuses and challenges that many refugees face. The lack of resources and the precarious living situations makes them uniquely vulnerable to the threats of human trafficking. The addition of a personal view as opposed to the more removed reporting of events helps demonstrate the actual situations of refugees.
ReplyDeleteI love your topic! It seems like a dystopian fiction, and it's difficult to wrap my head around the fact that this happens all the time even now. I also watched a couple videos and interviews on Youtube of North Korean defectors, and it really sounds horrific. The person talked about a girl just a little younger than him dying from starvation, then being swarmed by flies. The person I watched in the interview also said he thinks he was spotted escaping when they were taking him back to North Korea (he escaped 3 times) but the soldiers pretended not to see and let him go. I think it's relieving and hopeful that someone was sympathetic and helped him. I think it's great people are making videos (and in your case blog posts) so at least we are aware of these conditions and may be able to do something about it.
ReplyDeleteWow. This post is so great. I love it when a non-fiction book can be so thrilling but also stick to facts and address real world issues. I have not looked much into what is happening in North Korea or refugees coming from there but it is a very relevant topic to everything that's happening in USA and the world today. It's great that you did some auxiliary research, it sounds like this book really inspired you. I am intrigued by the way you describe the book, you make it sound exciting and inspirational. It sounds like a fiction book but somehow its real. Have you done any research into what China is doing to try to fix this problem. Do you know if this book caused any political trouble in China (I know they are pretty strict about those kind of things)?
ReplyDeleteI'm usually not a huge fan of autobiographies, but this sounds really interesting. Yeonmi's story sounds pretty sad but also exciting and inspiring. I'll have to check it out sometime soon.
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