Review: In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park - North Korea

 In Order to Live - Yeonmi Park / Park Yeonmi    https://www.yeonmi.com/

“We all have our own deserts.  They may not be the same as my desert, but we all have to cross them to find a purpose life and be free.”

“We weren’t capable of critical thinking because we had been trained not to ask questions.” 

“The regime wants us to be like cells in a single organism, where no unit can exist without the others…”

"I was taught never to express my opinion, never to question anything.  I was taught to simply follow what the government told me to do or say or think.”

“…is not enough for the government to control where you go, what you learn, where you work, and what you say.  They need to control you through your emotions, making you a slave to the state by destroying your individuality, …”

In Order to Live is an autobiographical  account of a young girl’s life in North Korea and her escape with her mother into China where she and her mother became sex slaves in essence before eventually finding her way to South Korea - a place she had learned to fear growing up in North Korea.  South Korea and the USA were the vilest nations on earth according to the propaganda she was taught and at one time believed.

The book isn’t the best written book, but what can you expect from a young girl who at 13 left her native country, suffered emotional trauma, and eventually made it to South Korea at the age of 15 with only the equivalent education of First or Second Grade.  The fact she was able to write a book a few years later is remarkable.  She more or less taught herself by reading after arriving in South Korea.  In about two years time she managed to pass the Korean GED and get admitted into a prestigious South Korean University where she again turned to books to improve her levels including learning English.

It was during her university years that she became "an activist”, speaking out for North Korean citizens who manage to escape but also against the human rights violations in North Korea and China including human trafficking.

I started this review with some quotes from her book that should resonant with people.  Read her book.  It isn’t written in the style of a Margaret Atwood or other highly polished author, but it tells her story in a way that is real.  Everyone should read it and think about the world it reveals.

It was interesting to note that she and I arrived in South Korea at almost the same time - August of 2009.  As far as I know, our paths never crossed.  I moved to South Korea to teach English and lived in Ansan while she lived in Asan.  I left in 2011 while she moved to the US in 2014.

I also lived and taught in China from 2013 to 2020.  I have been to some of the places she mentions in her book and know of others from people I met and got to know in China.  The corruption in China is less than before but it still exists.  There are good and bad people everywhere.  There are people who exploit others everywhere.

Other books you might want to read if you like her book.

I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban co-written with Christina Lamb.

Grey is the Color of Hope by Irina Ratushinskaya - Soviet Poet and Christian who escaped after years of oppression. 

I have now read books written by authors from 28 different Countries.