Somewhere along the line, many of us have become somewhat numb to the countless stories of North Korean defectors, all of whom escaped the repressive country by risking their lives. But a tearful, eight-minute speech by a 21-year-old North Korean defector, who witnessed a public execution of her friend’s mother for watching a Hollywood film and saw her own mother get raped by a Chinese broker after fleeing the country, is once again reminding the world of just how dire life is in the Hermit Kingdom’s brutal Stalinist regime.
Park Yeon-mi, who escaped North Korea when she was just 13, recently spoke at the One Young World conference in Dublin, Ireland about her traumatizing experiences. She and her mother had no option but to escape by walking across the Gobi Desert and look for her older sister who fled the country earlier.
“North Korea is the only country in the world that executes people for making unauthorized international phone call,” Park said.
“When I was 9 years old, I saw my friend’s mother publicly executed. Her crime? Watching a Hollywood movie … I saw my mother raped. The rapist was a Chinese broker. I will never forget his face. The rapist had targeted me. I was only 13 years old.”
In her speech, Park also recalled how she had to secretly bury her father in China at 3 a.m. when she was 14 years old, afraid of being discovered and sent back to her home country.
“Death or dignity … We were prepared to kill ourselves if we were going to be sent back to North Korea. We wanted to live as humans.”
Park was among a group of defectors who attended the event to share their stories with the audience. Watch the video below to listen to the full speech that evoked a standing ovation in Dublin.
Image courtesy of Voice of America
