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you must be wondering why your screen is dark
the screen is dark because what we will hear is a story of darkness young me
Park is a North Korean defector and the human rights activist she escaped to
China in 2007 and settled in South Korea in 2009 yummy
he left with your mother to China when you were only 13 can you tell us what it
was like being a child in North Korea my mom telling me not to even whisper the
birds and mice can hear my whisper so like I was so surprised when I came to
west in the society and parents encourage their children to speak up and
express their feelings by what I had to learn was that's more age how not to
express my feelings and not even think deeply and also I was like normal child
in North Korea of course I went to school and I learned the math like here
I was very differently to learn the math the questions was like there are 10
American passers in your clear the five of them and how many left to care and I
say America five American *** and I had to say American *** I could not
say just Americans and of course we play the game in school and we build a
snowman there and put pig nose and it's represent the American and we put the
hot water there and they disappears and we say hooray on our campus we
disappeared and they told us that the rest of the world are just on impure and
disgusting and dangerous place and we have nothing to envy outside the world
so our country was the past and that was the thing I learned and that was my life
in North Korea you came from from family had some privilege but your
father got in trouble with the regime for sending medals to China so at the
age of 13 with with your mother you decided to leave why and how did you
leave so North Korea is everything is not free we cannot choose what to wear
we cannot want to sing a song that we wanted to sing government to telling us
what to do what to wear what to watch so we cannot thank him for our serves and
and also we are not equal in that society we have a sanguine system which
means your division puts people into strict classes and one speaker my father
became prisoner I was picking previous prisoner starchy and therefore I didn't
have any future and you were very starving you were starving so I like
dragonflies or grass and think that I could care from the nature and we
realized we had to get off from this hair and that was a China so in 2007 my
sister left first and my mother and I followed it later and there was one man
actually who taught us told us he can bring us to China so in the border a
reporter there guards with a gun standing the earth and if they see
anybody's cause they would just shoot them and this man who brought us Hindus
and border guards so we crossed a frozen river but once I arrived in China I saw
my mother was being *** in front of my eyes and I was 13 years old a time and I
got there the broker was telling my mom I wanted to have a sexy reader I was 13
years old and I did not even know what sex meant that time and she told them no
you cannot do that so she had to be *** in order to protect me but that
was not a they told us in China the government's worth tried as catchers
back so if you wanted to live in China then you have to get married to the
Chinese man and unless if you don't you can go back but if going back north
creates death sentence anyway we are going to die for the starvation so as I
was age of 13 and my mom I was separated and she served for Chinese poker and
both of us have been trafficked
while you were living with this man that you could be reunited with your with
your mother how did that happen I never knew what
human trafficking was and I could imagine how people can sterling people
people I and I just could not believe they were negotiating price and from my
eyes and the men who bought me he was telling me if I was trying to kill
myself and he told me if I become his mistress
you'd by my mother and by my father from North Korea and I thought if I sacrifice
myself then I can see my parents and I decide to be his mistress and he bought
my mom back and he bought my father from North Korea my father arrived in China
he was very sick and he got the colon cancer from the prison here so he also
tied for the cancer event you and your mother stayed together and decided to
get out of China no no there was a way for us to find our Island but we heard
if we go to South Korea we can have the asylum there and we just wanted to give
a last try we just wanted to live like human beings with dignity and we decide
to walking across the kaabah desert so far with people in our team we walked in
quads walking through the desert must have been so cold
in the minus 4 degrees and it was one night one day and we follow the compass
first time but of recognized compass later so we had to follow the star to
know if the during the summertime the censorship might be more harsh than
uture so in the minus 4 degree nobody thinks some people would cross the
desert and just chose that time and it was just
really randomly and I was lucky so I was 15 years old of course I felt very you
know it on a time and we were ready to kill ourselves so we brought knives and
poison with us if we caught by Chinese police or if we were sent back to coin
sent back to North Korea but that time when I crossed that desert I've heard
really only the stars were with us and even this University's earth just opened
and us and I was just completely alone that does everything but absolute
longing less source is something that I could not just sender we heard how they
indoctrinate kids but what I was wondering
did you ever feel like them
so there is something not right about all this it's very it was a big dilemma
for me for a while because when I was in North Korea
I saw the foreign video from the black market and that video was the movie
Titanic I could not believe how come people are
making a movie for us such a shameful story because in North Korea there's no
love stories no love songs everything is about our dear leader and I just could
not believe and I really literally thought oh I know actors DiCaprio and
the new baby died but I was so glad he was alive and I think that really movie
showed me something humanity and something else out there but sir I could
not imagine our leader would be he cannot make miracles for us he's not
like a person he's a god-like figure he can do everything and this universe
chose him to be our captain of this earth and I learned all this
University's humanity I adore him and I that was my belief even when I was in
China people were saying all your leader is bad that's why he was were starving I
was so upset with him why would you say that you are later and I was defending
my leader even I was a refugee in China so it's really I still don't believe how
that is possible even recently now I'm in the States in the American pastures
country I'm enjoying this partisan probe and full prosperity I think but when
once I watching documentaries North Korean documentaries and I see that big
smile of a leader that monument I fear something warrants me here and I know
they are just *** you know they are jerks but I fear that a few seconds
later stop I cannot do I've cannot fear this feeling now so it's really scary in
some sense to me but finally is there
anything you want to tell people team someone doesn't like me air or for some
reason
I I think the the first thing I realized that for the first time in my life I own
me I own myself
and this is so powerful to me and never under myself I was belong to the States
I was belong to a man who bomb me and so many people enough they aren't allowing
themselves and I have a voice now there's a freedom allow me to have a
voice I wanted to use this voice and I want everyone use their voice you had a
lie on the darkest place in the world I wanted to say that the people in North
Korea time for food and dying for freedom it's not the freedom I'm talking
about freedom of expression or speech just freedom of wearing jeans or
watching movies they don't even have the universe Korea but these people are just
like us the cars being sold for $200 like 13
years old 15 years old they fear what your fear and the people in North Korea
they have hope they're low parents they love their sons and I that's why I want
to tell the world these people I just like this they deserve a war it is over
here and I think I wanted to let the world know we are same and that's why
it's not only North Korea human rights as a human being
it's our rights if people can treat it like this very North Korea I think it
all makes us unless a human