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Yeonmi Park
Park speaking at the 2018 Oslo Freedom Forum
Born	(1993-10-04) 4 October 1993 (age 31) Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, North Korea
Citizenship	United States (naturalized) South Korea
Education	Columbia University (BA)
Occupations	Human rights activist author speaker
Movement	Conservatism
Spouse	Ezekiel ​ ​(m. 2017; div. 2020)​
Children	1
Relatives	Eun-mi (sister)
Korean name
Hangul	박연미
Hanja	朴研美
Revised Romanization	Bak Yeon(-)mi
McCune–Reischauer	Pak Yŏnmi
YouTube information
Channel	Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park
Years active	2017 – present
Genre	Human rights activism
Subscribers	1.01 million
Total views	99.7 million
Last updated: 23 February 2023
Website	yeonmi.com
Signature

Yeonmi Park (Template:Lang-ko; born 4 October 1993) is a North Korean defector and activist whose family fled from North Korea to China in 2007 and settled in South Korea in 2009, before moving to the United States in 2014. Her family turned to black-market trading during the North Korean famine in the 1990s. She alleges that her father was sent to a labor camp for smuggling before the family travelled to China, where Park and her mother fell into the hands of human traffickers and she was sold into slavery before escaping to Mongolia.

Park came to wider global attention after giving a speech at the 2014 One Young World Summit—an annual summit that gathers young people from around the world to develop solutions to global problems—in Dublin, Ireland. Her speech, about her experience escaping from North Korea, received 50 million views in two days on YouTube and social media, with a current total of more than 100 million. Some commentators, as well as other North Korean defectors, journalists, and professors of Korean studies, have criticized Park's retellings of her story for having various inconsistencies, contradictory claims, and exaggerated accounts. She has attributed much of these discrepancies to imperfect memory and her limited English skills at the time of her original speech.

Park's memoir In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom was published in September 2015. She runs the YouTube channel "Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park", a personal social media vlog covering North Korean news, politics, and culture. Her political views have been characterized as conservative, and she has criticized the concepts of political correctness and "woke culture" in the United States, drawing parallels between political correctness in the U.S. and the totalitarian regime of North Korea. In 2023, screenshots of Park's 2021 interview with Joe Rogan became the center of memes accusing her of embellishing her stories.

Early life

Park was born on 4 October 1993 in Hyesan, Ryanggang, North Korea. She has an older sister, Eun-mi, who was born in 1991. Her father, Park Jin-Sik, was a civil servant who worked at the Hyesan town hall as a member of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, and her mother, Byeon Keum-sook, was a nurse for the Korean People's Army. Her paternal grandfather Park Chang-gyu, a former civil servant in the Japanese occupation, initially had a high songbun status after serving as a military officer in the Korean War, but her father's opportunities were limited after her uncle Park Dong-il was convicted for rape and attempted murder in 1980. Her father was unable to complete his military service at that time after suffering severe appendicitis. Meanwhile, her mother had a low songbun status because her ancestors had been landowners in North Hamgyong Province. After the Mukden incident her maternal grandfather Byeon Ung-rook had migrated to Hunchun, Manchukuo, and fought in an unknown faction of the Second Sino-Japanese War, but became stranded back in Onsong, Soviet-occupied North Korea, after losing two of his limbs in a railway accident. Her paternal grandmother Hwang Ok-soon also lost her leg in a 1952 U.S. air raid on Chongjin. Byeon Keun-sook graduated from college with a degree in inorganic chemistry.

Her father, after finding employment at a foundry, decided to supplement his income by smuggling Chinese cigarettes, clothes, and rice. He met Byeon in Kowon in 1989 during one of his smuggling runs. He later established a metal smuggling operation in the capital, Pyongyang, where he spent most of the year with his mistress Wan Sun while his wife and daughters remained in Hyesan. Her family was wealthy by North Korean standards during most of her childhood. However, the family later struggled after her father's imprisonment in November 2002 for illegally trading salt, sugar, and other spices.

Escape from North Korea

Park alleges that her father was sentenced to hard labor at the Chungsan reeducation camp in a show trial in 2004. Park claims that her views of the ruling Kim family changed when she watched an illegally imported VHS of the 1997 film Titanic, which reportedly caused her to realize the "oppressive nature" of the North Korean government. She states that the movie taught her the true meaning of love and gave her "a taste of freedom".

Her father's expulsion from the Workers' Party of Korea and their loss of income forced the Park sisters to stop going to school, and their living standards worsened. Park says she contracted a chronic case of pellagra because of malnutrition and allegedly resorted to eating dragonflies and cicadas to survive. In 2003 they moved to her mother's hometown of Kowon and Park was briefly sent to live with her aunt in the village of Songnam-ri. In 2005 her mother was allegedly detained for a month for illegally changing her residence, but at that time her father was released from prison on sick leave after falsely promising the warden a large bribe.

When reunited with his family, Park's father urged the family to plan their escape to China. However, Park's older sister Eunmi left for China early without notifying them. Park and her family feared that they would be punished for Eunmi's escape, so they escaped North Korea by traveling through China with the help of brokers who smuggle North Koreans into China. Chinese and Korean Christian missionaries helped them relocate to Mongolia, and in 2009, South Korean diplomats facilitated the family's transition into Seoul. Park then became a full-time activist for North Korean human rights.

China

Park and her family escaped North Korea by crossing the border into Changbai Korean Autonomous County, Jilin, China. On the night of 30 March 2007, with the aid of human traffickers, Park and her mother crossed the frozen Yalu River and three mountains into China. According to The Guardian and The Telegraph, Park's father was sick and stayed behind in North Korea, thinking his illness would slow them down. Several other speeches from Park suggested, however, that her father had joined them in the crossing to China. After crossing the border, Park and her mother headed for Jilin. They unsuccessfully tried to find Park's sister, Eunmi, asking the traffickers about her whereabouts. Park and her mother assumed that Eunmi had died. In October 2007, Park sent word to her father and arranged to smuggle him into China. There, he was diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer.

According to The Telegraph, while the family was living in secret, in January 2008 her father died. The family was unable to formally mourn him, fearing that they would be discovered by Chinese authorities, and buried his cremated remains in the ground of a nearby mountain. Park's mother told The Diplomat in 2014 that they had paid two people to help carry his body up the mountain for burial instead.

Park and her mother found a Christian shelter headed by Chinese and South Korean missionaries in Qingdao. Due to the city's large ethnic Korean population, they were able to evade the attention of authorities. With the help of the missionaries, they fled to South Korea through Mongolia.

Mongolia

In February 2009, after receiving aid from human rights activists and Christian missionaries, Park and her mother travelled through the Gobi Desert to Mongolia to seek asylum from South Korean diplomats.

When they reached the Mongolian border, General Authority for Border Protection guards stopped them and threatened to deport the pair back to China. Park recalls that at this point she and her mother pledged to kill themselves with their own razors, stating, "I thought it was the end of my life. We were saying goodbye to one another." Their actions persuaded the guards to let them through, but they were placed under arrest and kept in custody at a detention center at Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Park later said in a podcast interview with Jordan Peterson that she believed the guards were toying with them since Mongolia's official policy on North Korean refugees is to deport them to South Korea. On 1 April 2009, Park and her mother were sent to Ulaanbaatar's Chinggis Khaan Airport to fly them to Seoul Incheon International Airport. She later told The Telegraph that she felt relieved when Mongolian customs officials waved her through.

South Korea

Park was automatically granted South Korean citizenship after arriving in Seoul in 2009, later becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen. She was married to an American man named Ezekiel from 2017 to 2020; they had a son together.

After receiving training at the South Korean Ministry of Unification's Hanawon Resettlement Center, Park and her mother settled in Asan. They had difficulty adjusting to their new lives in South Korea, but they managed to find jobs as shop assistants and waitresses. Despite arriving in South Korea with only a second-grade education, Park managed to achieve her high school equivalency after eighteen months of studying. She was admitted to Dongguk University in Seoul. In 2011, she was cast on the EBS television program Now On My Way to Meet You, a variety show featuring North Korean defectors, in which she became known as "the Paris Hilton of North Korea".

In April 2014, the South Korean National Intelligence Service informed Park that her sister, Eunmi, had escaped to South Korea via China and Thailand. Park and her mother eventually reunited with Eunmi.

United States

Park first visited North America in 2013 with a Christian mission, going to Houston, Texas; San José, Costa Rica; and Atlanta, Georgia. Park moved to New York City in 2014 to complete her memoir while continuing to work as an activist. She published her memoir in 2015, where she shared her journey from defection to higher education. Park attended classes at Barnard College and then applied and was accepted to the Columbia University School of General Studies, starting there in the Fall 2016 semester. She majored in economics and graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts.

Park has written and spoken publicly about her life in North Korea, has written for the Washington Post, and has been interviewed by The Guardian and for the Australian public affairs show Dateline. Park volunteers for such programs as the Freedom Factory Corporation, a free-market think tank in South Korea. She is also a member of the Helena Group think tank.

Park has also become a member of LiNK (Liberty in North Korea), an American nonprofit organization that rescues North Korean refugees hiding in China and resettles them in South Korea and the U.S. On 12 to 15 June 2014, Park attended LiNK's summit at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Park and North Korean activists Joo Yang and Seongmin Lee worked in sessions and labs, informing participants of conditions in North Korea and of how LiNK can support refugees from North Korea. Park took part in LiNK's campaign, the Jangmadang (장마당).

Park has also been outspoken about tourism in North Korea, as visitors are encouraged to bow to statues of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, which she sees as " the regime's propaganda by allowing themselves to be portrayed as if they too love and obey the leader."

In 2014, Park was selected as one of the BBC 100 Women.

Park worked as a co-host for Casey Lartigue, a talk show host of the podcast-show North Korea Today, which focuses on North Korean topics and the lives of refugees after their escapes. Together, Lartigue and Park hosted five episodes of the podcast.

Park has told the story of her defection at several well-known events, including TEDx in Bath, the One Young World summit in Dublin, and the Oslo Freedom Forum.

At an 26 April 2021 speaking engagement at Texas Tech University, Park claimed that speech criticizing the North Korean Supreme Leader had become a crime in South Korea, possibly referring to South Korea's passing of an amendment to the "Inter-Korean Relations Development Act" prohibiting South Koreans from sending, amongst other things, anti-Pyongyang leaflets, auxiliary storage devices (e.g., USB drives), and money or other monetary benefits to North Korea.

According to the conservative media outlet Campus Reform, in 2023 students at Syracuse University tore down posters advertising a speech by Park, and used online platforms to accuse her of lying.

In 2023, screenshots of Park's 2021 interview with the Joe Rogan podcast became the focus of numerous memes accusing her of fabricating stories and highlighting her conflicting stories.

Veracity of claims

Some commentators have noted inconsistencies in Park's stories about her life in North Korea. Mary Ann Jolley of The Diplomat has noted problems ranging from "serious inconsistencies" to contradictory refutations on several occasions. In an online update, Park claimed that many of the discrepancies in her stories came from her limited English skills in the past, adding that her "childhood memories were not perfect." The US North Korean Analysis organization 38 North has noted that some critics, including other North Korean refugees, have accused Park of embellishing her accounts or appropriating elements from others' escape stories. John Lee, a journalist focusing on South Korean foreign policy and relations with the U.S., criticized Park in an opinion piece in NK News for "muddl her message with... nakedly partisan punditry" in favor of conservative causes and media in the United States and South Korea.

Many stories told by Park concerning life in North Korea were mocked by writers for Dazed, including Park's claims that ice cream does not exist in North Korea, that North Korea only has a single train that only runs once a month which passengers have to push to move, and that children in North Korea eat mud. This sentiment was shared by a writer for Britain's oldest socialist newspaper, the Morning Star, who accused Park of fabricating stories for financial incentives:

"Park Yeonmi said that there were no words for “love” and “I” in North Korea when they speak the same Korean language as South Korea. She claimed to have crossed the entire Gobi Desert on foot, with six people including a baby, in temperatures of minus 40 degrees, without any winter clothing and without a guide in a single day, and when asked how she achieved this impossible feat, replied that it was a miracle. Perhaps her $12,500 fee per speech is a miracle too?"

Execution for watching foreign movies

Park claims that when she was nine years old she witnessed her best friend's mother being publicly executed in a stadium in Hyesan. However, fellow North Korean defectors also from Hyesan say that public executions in North Korea never happened in stadiums, and that public executions had been halted several years before Park claims she witnessed one.

According to Park, the reason this woman was allegedly executed for was because she was caught watching a foreign made movie. However Park's account of which movie this was has changed depending on her audience. When speaking in Hong Kong, she claimed the woman was executed for watching South Korean movies, however when speaking to audiences in Ireland she claimed this woman was executed for watching a James Bond movie. Park's claims that people in North Korea were executed for watching foreign movies was mocked and criticised by multiple North Korean defectors, who told journalists that Park's story was false.

Additionally Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University and one of the world's leading experts on North Korean politics, who had also interviewed hundreds of defectors from North Korea, said that he was "skeptical whether watching a Western movie would lead to an execution", and that he felt it wouldn't even be likely for one to be arrested for it. He also said that public executions in North Korea were only reserved for the most extreme crimes including murder and involvement in large scale criminal networks.

Inconsistencies between Park and her family

Yeonmi Park has claimed that both her mother and father had served prison sentences for alleged crimes in North Korea. However, Park's details about these events are vastly different from her mother's testimony. Park claims her father served between 17 to 18 years in prison, however Park's mother claimed he was initially sentenced to 1 year in prison but was subsequently extended to 10 years.

During a BBC interview, Yeonmi Park claims her mother was imprisoned for 6 months after her father was sent to jail. However Park's mother claimed that she was merely interrogated sporadically over the course of a year and was not detained. In some interviews, Park claims she and her sister were left alone to live in the mountains after both their mother and father were jailed, and that they both survived by eating grass. However during a BBC interview, Park changed her story and then claimed that during this time she lived with her Aunt and her sister lived with her uncle. Park's mother also contradicted Park's claims that she was starving, telling the host of Now On My Way To Meet You that Park and her family never faced starvation. In an interview with the libertarian for-profit organisation called the Freedom Factory, Park recalls her upbringing in Korea, never mentioning starvation, and said she was given two meals daily.

Escape from North Korea

Park claims that during the night of her escape from North Korea she crossed several mountains, however journalist Mary Ann Jolley who had interviewed Yeonmi Park noted that there are no mountains between Park's hometown of Hyesan and China, and that the two countries are instead separated by a river. In multiple interviews Park says she escaped North Korea with both her mother and father, however during the Young One World Summit in Dublin, Park claimed that only her mother had accompanied her and that she watched her being raped by a Chinese man.

In one interview, Park claims her father died during her escape from North Korea and that she buried him alone. However, Park's mother claims that she paid two men to help Park bury her father. In other versions of her story, Park instead claims to have cremated her father.

Beliefs

Park believes that there are positive and negative possibilities for North Korea to be reunified with South Korea. She believes that there are neither northerners nor southerners in Korea, just Koreans themselves.

Park believes that change might occur in North Korea as long as she and other North Korean defectors advocate for human rights there. According to the National Review, Park presumes that "the regime adjusts, as the Chinese Communists and the Vietnamese Communists have done. That would allow the North Korean Communists to hang on for untold years longer." Therefore, the Kims would be able to focus on their people, and then, they would be able to become more open to the world. Park also believes that the Jangmadang, the black market of North Korea, will transform or develop the country's society because it provides wide access to outside news media and information. According to Park, "If I ever return to a reformed North Korea, I will be thrilled to meet my peers as we attempt to bring wealth and freedom to people who were forced into poverty by the Kim family dynasty." Park considers Kim Jong-un to be a "cruel" leader and has made various claims about him personally ordering the executions of dissidents.

Political views

Park described her education at Columbia University as "forcing you to think the way they want you to think", claiming that she was scolded for enjoying literature by Jane Austen. Park criticized political correctness at Columbia University, saying, "I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying," and added that "America is not free". She also said that "our education system is brainwashing our children to make them think that this country is racist and make them believe that they are victims. It's time for us to fight back. Otherwise, it might be too late for us to bring the glory of this country back."

She believes the U.S. is a "tolerant country" and she criticized African-American track and field athlete Gwen Berry for turning away from the national anthem at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in protest of racial and social injustices.

In a 2021 interview with Joe Rogan, Park claimed that during the Summer 2020 George Floyd protests in Chicago, she and her son were attacked and robbed by three African-American women. Park also claimed that a crowd of white bystanders accused her of being racist and prevented Park from calling the police. One of the alleged perpetrators, Lecretia Harris, was caught and pled guilty to unlawful restraint. The robbery charge was dropped by prosecutors as part of a plea deal. Park cited the incident as a catalyst for her "speaking out" and becoming "the enemy of the woke."

Bibliography

• Park, Yeonmi; Vollers, Maryanne (29 September 2015). In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN 978-0-698-40936-1. OCLC 921419691.
• Park, Yeonmi (14 February 2023). While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-668-00333-6.

See also

• List of North Korean defectors in South Korea
• North Korean defectors
• Human rights in North Korea
• Liberty in North Korea
• Shin Dong-hyuk
• Jumana Hanna

References

1. ^ "About Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park". YouTube.
2. ^ Phillips, Tom (10 October 2014). "Escape from North Korea: 'How I escaped horrors of life under Kim Jong-il'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
3. Park, Yeonmi; Maryanne Vollers (2015). "Seven: The Darkest Nights". In Order to Live : A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom (1st ed.). New York: Penguin. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-59420-679-5. OCLC 921419691. he was moved to Camp 11, the Chungsan "reeducation" labor camp northwest of Pyongyang.
4. ""Kim Jong Un doesn't like me at all," says 21-year-old defector from North Korea". Retrieved 18 September 2015.
5. ^ Gupta, Priyanka. "Escaping North Korea: one refugee's story". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
6. "Video by Higher Perspective". Higher Perspective (facebook). 12 March 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
7. ^ Richard Murray (2017). "Reporting on the impossible: The use of defectors in covering North Korea (page 4)" (PDF). Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics.
8. ^ John Power (21 January 2015). "Celebrated Korean gulag defector changes story. Does that change the truth?". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
9. ^ Barbara Miller (4 September 2017). "North Korean defector stories find home in the South on reality TV show". ABC News.
10. ^ "When North Koreans Go South, Some Go Professional". 38 North. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
11. ^ Jolley, Mary Ann (10 December 2014). "The Strange Tale of Yeonmi Park". The Diplomat. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
12. ^ Park, Yeonmi; Vollers, Maryanne (29 September 2015). In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN 978-0-698-40936-1. OCLC 921419691.
13. "Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park – YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
14. Chiappone, Dominic (6 April 2023). "Conservative activist, author Yeonmi Park speaks at Shaffer Art Institute". The Daily Orange. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
15. ^ Collman, Ashley (15 June 2021). "A North Korean defector says going to Columbia University reminded her of the oppressive regime, saying she felt forced to 'think the way they want you to think'". Yahoo News. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
16. ^ Waite, Thom (17 May 2023). "Yeonmi Park: is the DPRK defector and 'enemy of the woke' a western psy-op?". Dazed. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
17. ^ Shuttleworth, Catherine (17 May 2023). "Who is Yeonmi Park? The North Korean defector who thinks America is 'woke'". www.indy100.com. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
18. Saunders, Josh (31 May 2020). "North Korea emboldened: How Chinese gangs help and prop up Kim Jong-un's rogue state". The Express. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020. There she was at the mercy of a restaurant owner who exploited her and when she tried to escape instructed a gang to pursue her – they were instructed to either kill her or have her deported.
19. Majumder, Bhaswati Guha (1 June 2020). "Who Is Park Eunmi? North Korean Woman Smuggled Herself to China in Search of Better Future". International Business Times. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020. Park Eunmi, is one such defectors who had spent several years in hiding after she smuggled herself across the North Korean border into China and now she has revealed how barbaric gangs in China play a crucial role in exploiting defectors.
20. Engel, Richard; Werner, Kennett (26 February 2018). Written at Seoul. "Yeonmi Park's long journey from North Korea to Chicago". NBC News. New York City. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
21. "Summit Speaker – Yeonmi Park – Liberty in North Korea". Retrieved 25 September 2015.
22. ^ Jolley, Mary Anne (3 September 2014). "Celebrity Defector: Speaking out against North Korea". Dateline. Archived from the original on 8 May 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
23. Hakim, Danny (25 October 2014). "The World's Dissidents Have Their Say". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
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25. Cussen, John (15 September 2016). "On the Call to Dismiss North Korean Defectors' Memoirs and on Their Dark American Alternative". Korean Studies. 40 (1). University of Hawaii Press: 140–157. doi:10.1353/ks.2016.0005. ISSN 1529-1529. S2CID 163985007 – via Project MUSE.
26. Convery, Lewy (19 August 2021). "S4: E39 – The End of Universities?". Jordan Peterson. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
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29. "One Student's Journey from North Korea to Columbia University". GS. Columbia U. 15 November 2016.
30. ^ Crocker, Lizzie (31 October 2014). "How 'Titanic 'Helped This Brave Young Woman Escape North Korea's Totalitarian State". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
31. Park, Yeonmi; Shearlaw, Maeve (29 October 2014). "The North Korean defector who continues to defy regime – live Q&A as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
32. "Helena Group Members". Helena Group Foundation. 2017.
33. Thompson, Nathan A. "The Ethics of Taking a Trip to North Korea as a Tourist". NBC News. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
34. "Who are the 100 Women 2014?". BBC. 26 October 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
35. "North Korea Today: Featuring Casey and Yeonmi". Retrieved 25 September 2015.
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37. "In Order to live". 38 North. 26 April 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
38. "South Korea: Scrap Bill Shielding North Korean Government". Human Rights Watch. 5 December 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
39. "North Korean defector group claims to have sent leaflets at border in defiance of new law". ABC News. 30 April 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
40. "Leftist students call North Korean defector Yeonmi Park a 'liar,' destroy flyers for her event at Syracuse". campusreform.org. 26 April 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
41. Lee, John (23 June 2021). "North Korean defector Yeonmi Park muddles human rights message with partisanship". NK News. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
42. Podmore, Will (5 May 2023). "Lies, damn lies, and Nato". Morning Star. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
43. ^ Ann Jolley, Mary (10 December 2014). "The Strange Tale of Yeonmi Park". thediplomat.com. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2023. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 17 May 2023 suggested (help)
44. Park, Yeonmi (27 May 2014). "North Korea's best hope" (Opinion). Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
45. Gupta, Priyanka (15 October 2014). "Escaping North Korea: one refugee's story". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
46. Sahakian, Teny (14 June 2021). "North Korean defector says 'even North Korea was not this nuts' after attending Ivy League school". Fox News. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
47. Collman, Ashley (16 June 2021). "A North Korean defector says going to Columbia University reminded her of the oppressive regime, saying she felt forced to 'think the way they want you to think'". Business Insider India. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
48. Brown, Isabel (22 September 2021). "On The Frontlines With Special Guest, Yeonmi Park". Turning Point USA. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
49. Stabile, Angelica (16 June 2021). "North Korean defector drags Dems for comments on Americans being deprived of freedom: 'That's a complete lie'". Fox Business. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
50. Nelson, Amy (1 July 2021). "North Korean defector says US Olympian Gwen Berry's flag protest 'unthinkable'". Fox News. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
51. ^ Samson, Carl (7 August 2021). "Yeonmi Park says she was robbed by three women, bystanders stopped her from calling police". NextShark. Retrieved 7 August 2021.
52. "Cops use taxi cab transaction to track down Mag Mile robber, prosecutors say". CWBChicago. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2023.

External links

• Yeonmi Park on Facebook
• While They Watched (2015), documentary feature film starring Yeonmi Park
• Yeonmi Park's speech at the One Young World Conference (YouTube)
• Yeonmi Park's Ubben Lecture at DePauw University; 5 October 2015

• North Korean defectors
• Living people
• 1993 births
• North Korean escapees
• American human rights activists
• North Korean human rights activists
• South Korean human rights activists
• Political repression in North Korea
• BBC 100 Women
• North Korean women activists
• People from Ryanggang
• American Christians
• North Korean Christians
• South Korean Christians
• Converts to Christianity from atheism or agnosticism
• Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
• Dongguk University alumni
• Barnard College alumni