Monday 21 May 2018

Book Review: In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park



I’ve read a few books from North Korea defectors. Most noticeably A River in Darkness:  One Man's Escape from North Korea and Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, but I hadn’t really read anything from a purely female perspective until now.

Yeonmi Park grew up in North Korea, near the border with China, with her entrepreneurial father, mother and sister. Although they may not have initially had the worst upbringing due to her father’s ingenuity, this changed when he was sent to prison, leaving Yeonmi and her sister alone without food while their mother travelled for work. What follows is the now typical, and harrowing, tale of starvation and desperation to survive in a country that doesn’t care for their own outside of the elite. Yeonmi talks openly of a childhood spent searching for food and constantly living in fear that they could follow in their father’s footsteps.

Desperation turns to flight, as Yeonmi and her mother are smuggled into China, and to perhaps an even worse fate than starvation as they soon become embroiled in the trafficking and raping of North Korean women to impoverished Chinese farmers. Throughout her story, Yeonmi is honest and open about her experiences to the point where it almost feels cathartic. By sharing her story it feels like Yeonmi is expressing not only her disappointment in her home country, but also her grief and resilience to thrive. And it also gives hope to those still struggling.

The book also really highlights just how different the experience of defecting is for North Korean women compared to men. Often the men do this alone, and are exposed to harsh and violent endings. The women endure their own unique horrors that seem to revolve around this feeling of powerlessness and reliance on their captors, but often it’s alongside other women who share their plight. For Yeonmi, she had her mother.

The most surprising aspect for me were the later chapters centering around South Korea. I’d read previously of the struggles first encountered by North Koreans during their assimilation into South Korean life, however I wasn’t fully aware of the prejudices, and also the lack of understanding, that Yeonmi faces on encountering native South Koreans. This seems to be no fault on the governments side, as they provide education and money to help ease the pressures, but rather just a general ignorance to the plight of defectors. It would seem, from Yeonmi’s perspective, that they choose to bury their heads in the sand to the real suffering across their borders. I found it especially sad that Yeonmi felt the need to bury all aspects of her North Korean heritage - from her accent, to studying ‘celebrities’ just in order to fit in and be accepted.

The real sentiment I’ll take away from this however, is just how strong the familial bond can be. Yeonmi and her mother face so much adversity through their lives, and continue to look for their missing sister and daughter long after their arrival in South Korea. Their bond never waivers, and the love they have for each other is unending.

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom is available to purchase now from: Amazon

 - 4 stars

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