'I am most grateful for two things," said Park Yeon-mi at the recent One Young World event in Bangkok. "That I was born in North Korea and that I escaped from North Korea. These events have made me who I am today."
Last year Park, who was dressed in the traditional Korean dress hanbok, became a sensation when she spoke at the forum in Dublin, Ireland. Her tearful speech on her escape from the world's most reclusive country when she was 13 rendered most of the audience misty-eyed. The video has since received more than 2 million views on YouTube.
Since then, Park has embraced the opportunity to step up as an advocate for North Korean victims of trafficking in China and human rights abuses in North Korea. In September, she published her memoir In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey To Freedom, where she opens up on how she became entangled in prostitution in China through brokers who helped her escape from the impoverished country. This was always the part that she chose to omit whenever she talked about her story in the past. (The Thai translation of her book will come out next year).
Last month, Park spoke in Thailand, which remains one of the top choices for North Korean defectors, as the country has an agreement to deport them to South Korea, where they're likely to receive refugee status and be resettled. Stepping on the stage at One Young World, she promised the audience in advance that she would try her best not to cry while reliving her journey once again. Park revealed that her first intention when deciding to flee from her country was not to run for freedom.
"I didn't escape to have a voice," said Park. "I escaped for a bowl of rice. I didn't know what freedom was or what it meant to be free at that time. There's light coming from China and I just followed the light."
Park's hometown is Hyesan, a northern city located near the Yalu River, a popular pathway where defectors risk their lives to run from the iron-fisted regime. She was born in 1993, one year before the famine took place following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which had helped feed North Korea. This partly caused mass starvation that killed up to 3.5 million people.
As Park's family was of poor "songban" status in the system classifying people into three groups based on their faithfulness to the regime, the crumbling state-controlled economy that had discontinued the ration system was set to take a big toll on them sooner or later. To avoid a sorry plight, Park's father came up with a contraband business, which kept the family in good shape for some time. However, one day, he was arrested and sent to prison. He was released in 2005 on sick leave after giving a bribe. The family, however, never recovered from the financial loss.
In 2007, Park and her mother decided to cross the frozen Yalu River from North Korea to China on a dark winter night after her elder sister had taken off with her friend. She was sure that if they got caught, that could very well mean the end of their lives. To escape from hunger, they would have to risk it all, even if they didn't know what awaited them. Soon, Park found out she and her mother had been tricked to be sold in China. Her father soon followed, only to later die of colon cancer.
"Human lives like yours are being sold for less than US$100 (3,500 baht)," said Park. "I was sold for less than that. People don't even know what human dignity is. They don't even know what the philosophy is. All they know is that they are hungry. That's why they accept their fate because hunger means death for us."
After nearly two years of putting up with her fate in China and fleeing across the Gobi Desert, Park and her mother made it to South Korea where they were given citizenship.
Her education was equivalent to that of two years in primary school. Five years later, Park is now completing her police administration major at a top university in South Korea and has been accepted to Columbia University. The two also recently reunited with her elder sister.
While travelling the world to inspire others with her story and promoting activism, Park is also learning to understand the concept of freedom.
"In North Korea, the regime decided everything for me," said Park. "They told me what to wear, what kind of haircut I should have, what to study.
"But in South Korea, I have the freedom to choose for myself. I couldn't believe how what I believed matters in this country. I didn't know what my favourite colour was because I never had to think about it. I'm still learning about freedom and what it really means to be free."
