North Korea

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

In Order to Live (A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom)

Author: Yeonmi Park

Narration by: Eji Kim

Yeonmi Park has written an interesting story about North Korea’s general conditions before she and her mother defected. In 2007, at the age of 13, Yeonmi and her mother escaped North Korea. They crossed the border from Hyesan, North Korea into China. They ventured into Mongolia and escaped to South Korea in 2009.

The picture Yeonmi paints of North Korean life is one of famine, and chronic hunger that is exacerbated by a state-controlled food assistance policy. She reveals a North Korean environment that is hypervigilant about ideological control of its citizens with a system of informants about any criticism of North Korean rule or government belief. She notes human trafficking exists for North Korean women who cross the Yalu River to China. She suggests her mother is a victim of that abhorrent trade in order to escape North Korea. This illicit form of trade is corroborated by other North Korean women who crossed the border to China.

To survive in North Korea, Yeonmi’s family is involved in black-marketing between North Korea and China. Her father participates in a network of bribed officials in the black market to improve their family’s living conditions while in North Korea. Yeonmi explains her father becomes intimately involved with another woman in his North Korean activities which undoubtedly encourages her mother to defect. Another incentive for her mother’s decision is Yeonmi’s older sister who had crossed the border into China at age 16 and lost communication with her family. Presumably, the older daughter wished also to find a better life.

Naturally, Western’ listener/readers want to believe everything Yeonmi writes. In the context of what others have written about North Korean life, one is inclined to believe much of what she recalls in her book. Many North Korean citizens want a better life while women are coveted on the border because of the sex trade. Yeonmi notes her mother is sexually assaulted by a trafficker during their escape into China. She infers the assault is a combination of coercion and violence, not a transactional choice.

Women’s exploitation is a worldwide issue. Yeonmi paints a picture of North Korea’s and China’s border trade, and risks that are entirely believable in the context of other critics who have written about the illicit trade between North Korea and China. Just like the illegal drug trade between Columbia, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States, North Korea and China run an illegal trade in human beings. At the heart of this corruption is the money and power it gives those who choose to support or ignore it. Sex, like drugs, victimizes the innocent and lures corrupt citizens in all cultures.

Yeonmi writes about the chronic hunger, famine, and food scarcity in North Korea’s 1990s that is corroborated by UN reports and Non-Government Organizations research and other defector testimonies. The same UN’ and NGO’ reports refer to North Korea’s repression, use of surveillance, and ideological indoctrination. North Koreans that have escaped reinforce reports of indoctrination, the fear of being informed upon and the propaganda about the “Dear Leader” that rules their forsaken country. Many defectors have reported the harsh punishments, forced labor, and border violence (shootings) they have experienced or seen in North Korea.

Yeonmi Park’s story may not be entirely true or objective but enough of her story is corroborated by other organizations and writers that give credence to her story. The inhumanity that has been created by the leader of North Korea turns one’s stomach. As Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. North Korea is a case that proves the point.