Yeonmi Park escaped North Korea when she was 13 years old with her mother. She has become a spokeswoman for the rights of North Koreans escaping the “unimaginable country”.
Park spoke at The One Young World Summit two years ago. But it is now that 65 million people have heard her story.
Park’s heartwrenching, eloquent and truly personal speech at the summit, which had attendees in tears, was recently shared on Facebook and in less than a week it has been watched 65 million times and shared more than a million times.
When you watch it you will see why.
Her speech will leave you in awe of the hell she went through and how North Koreans are being terrorised.
Through tears she relays several harrowing moments during her time in North Korea including at nine years old watching her friend’s mother being publicly executed “her crime — watching a Hollywood movie”.
“North Korea is the only country in the world that executed people for making unauthorised international phone calls” she said.
She was born in 1993 and was abducted at birth. Her father died in China after they escaped North Korea.
“I had to bury him, at 3am in secret. I was 14 years old, I couldn’t even cry, I was afraid to be sent back to North Korea” she sobs.
“The day I escaped North Korea, I saw my mother raped. The rapist was a Chinese broker. He targeted me, I was 13 years old. There is a saying in North Korea: ‘Women are weak, but mothers are strong’. My mother allowed herself to be raped in order to protect me.”
The most harrowing part of her speech is the story of her escape.
“Mongolia was our freedom moment. Death or dignity. Armed with knives, we were prepared to kill ourselves if we were going to be sent back to North Korea. We wanted to live as humans.
“No humans deserve to be oppressed just because of their birthplace.”
