In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park

In Order to Live 

A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom

Yeonmi Park

Published 2015

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This story is such a dilemma, I do not know where to begin. I wish all I needed to say was: read this! Americans especially should read this book. It serves as a warning of what is to come in the new world order: tyranny, starvation, loss of privacy, mobility, independence, individuality, and definitely the termination of any concept of equality - equality being a false idol. Some people may think a collective government will satisfy justice, fairness, and right; but it is a lie. All of humanity's nightmares, the exact opposite of what people covet, will actually come true. 

In Order to Live demonstrates that nightmare -- the story of what happens when evil wins and good men do nothing, when totalitarianism rules and only the loyal elites are protected, and the remainder of the people are enslaved. 

It is the story about a young girl's wasteful existence in and terrifying escape, in 2007, from North Korea, through China, and to South Korea. She, her older sister, and their mother planned an escape, not for liberty, but because they were starving. Yeonmi Park was only thirteen-years old.  

Back Track

After WWII, the USSR helped build up North Korea and installed Communist sympathizer and Stalinist, Kim Sung Il, as premiere. When Kim invaded South Korea, the United States entered the War. The Americans pushed the Communists back to the Chinese border, but China pushed the Americans back to the 38th parallel, which today marks the division between North and South Korea. 

The North Koreans lived (and still live) in a caste system. Families were (and are) ranked according to their loyalty to the regime. In the early years of her life, Yeonmi's family lived better than most North Koreans because her father had family and party connections. He was resourceful, not brainwashed like most people, and knew how to work around the system. He took chances doing any kind of business that would provide for his family. By taking risks, he could bribe guards who looked for a handout.

After the end of the Cold War and the decline of Communism in Russia, the USSR began cutting off North Korea. In 1994, Kim Sung Il died and his son Jong Il took his place. North Korea suffered a terrible famine. Any aid received from the outside was given to the military. It is estimated that over one million North Koreans starved to death. 

After her father was arrested and sent to a prison camp for his illegal business, Park's mother had to do what she could to get food for her daughters, often being away for many months at a time and leaving her young girls at home to fend for themselves. Because her father was in prison, all of their relatives suffered, too, and no one wanted to help them. She and her sister had to eat bugs to survive.

Yeonmi's family began whispering about escaping North Korea. When her father was permitted (via a bribe) to leave prison on medical leave (although where he would get proper medical care, no one knew), life was just unbearable. She and her sister could no longer attend school (though school was only for  propaganda); her parents had to fake a divorce in order for her mother to get permission to move to another town; and, as I have said, they were totally shunned by relatives because of her father's imprisonment. 

Furthermore, Yeonmi noticed that her father's five years in prison had successfully broken his spirit. His state issued ID was destroyed forever. He was reduced to an animal. 

Walking home one night with her mother and sister and looking over the river toward the lights in China, Yeonmi realized she just wanted to go where there was food and light (North Korea has a problem with electricity). She thought: It was like being drawn to a light without knowing why." 

I wish I'd known at the time what that light really meant to North Koreans like me. Following it would cost me my innocence and, for a while, my humanity. 

The Escape 

Suffering starvation, poverty, loss of dignity, humiliation, shame, and fear in North Korea were not enough to prepare Yeonmi (and her mother and sister) for what they were about to suffer in China. Yeonmi was ignorant of so many truths because the North Korean regime controls the media, the language, emotions, and thought. For Yeonmi, it was like being born again and having to experience the world for the first time. And imagine being born into a new world of rape, trafficking, cruelty, and indignity. But there was food, and for awhile it contented her. 

Because of China's one child policy, the country suffered a deficit of women. The excess of males, many of them undesirable, were willing to pay for the young North Korean women who used the service that helped them to escape to China. Yeonmi and her mother found themselves stuck in this very degrading system that Yeonmi declares China is unwilling to do anything about.

Eventually, the man Yeonmi became involved helped her and her mother complete their goal to reach South Korea, and that was another ordeal in itself. 

Freedom

Life in South Korea had its challenges, too. In the end, Yeonmi faced the challenge head on, and today she is a voice for the voiceless. Through reading literature, classics, Western philosophies, and biographies she learned to live. She read one hundred books in one year, increased in learning, and earned a college degree. 

But more importantly, it was through reading that she learned how to think. She could now see and understand what happened in North Korea. People are not taught to think critically, and if you never have to practice thinking, then you simply see what you are told to see. And that is the truth. 

I found that as I read more, my thoughts were getting deeper, my vision wider, and my emotions less shallow."

When you have more words to describe the world, you increase your ability to think complex thoughts.  

After reading George Orwell's Animal Farm, Yeonmi saw the obvious resemblance to the North Korean regime. And when she read Nineteen Eighty-Four, she recognized her father in the protagonist, Winston, "who secretly saw past Big Brother's propaganda."

She learned that North Korea is one of the poorest and most repressive countries on the planet; that Kim Jong lived in a luxurious mansion while the people starved. She even had to be told that he was fat. She knew that, but because she had not thought for herself, she needed someone to point it out. 

It was not until they were suffering a long and dangerous trek through the Gobi Desert on their way to South Korea, that it had occurred to Yeomni that she hated Kim Song Il and blamed him for everything. And yet, she admitted, "Betraying the Dear Leader was the hardest thing she did." Her mother agreed.

When someone asked her what her hobby was, she did not understand hobby. When it was explained to her that it was something you did for pleasure, she was perplexed because she was only required to please the regime. In North Korea, there is no "I."

I could finally think about something beyond food and safety, and It made me feel more fully human. I never knew that happiness could come from knowledge.

My only disappointment, which has nothing to do with the author or the book, was that she was not given the proper gospel. It was through a Christian missionary that she and her mother were able to make it to South Korea, and they had to "become Christian." But because of the work she did in China, which was done out of survival, these missionaries (mainly Chinese and South Koreans) could not forgive her. 

Well, it wasn't for THEM to forgive her; it is the business of Christ to forgive. And if they had explained to her what Jesus did on the cross -- how He died for all humanity, for all the sins of the world -- it did not matter what she did or why. His forgiveness that He offers is greater than her worst crimes! But sadly, they did not teach her properly. To this day, I am not sure she has gotten the proper good news, even when she went to Texas to work for a Christian missionary, which tells you that even "Christians" can be in name only. 

What About Now?

You can learn more about Yeonmi and what she has accomplished beyond the story she wrote. She recently graduated from Columbia University. Unfortunately, she said it was a waste of money and time because every subject, class, and professor was programed with lies: lies about racism, lies about sexism, lies about equality. She fears that the world is headed into the same dangerous situation as North Korea. 

Yeonmi said breathing was the only thing you were able to do on your own in North Korea. Meanwhile, at Columbia, because of the hostile environment, she had to self-censor her thought and speech; and, again, all she could do on her own was breathe. Not think or have an opinion. In other words, the setting at Columbia was similar to North Korea.

You can hear more about it in this conversation between Yeonmi and Dr. Jordan Peterson. They discuss the entire book, and then at 1:40:00 they discuss Columbia University. Extremely disheartening If you love liberty and free thought, you will cry, too.

Furthermore: Yeonmi's protests that no one (Hollywood, the media, and international governments) have the courage to challenge the destructive Chinese Communist Party; she calls China an enabler of North Korea. 

I hope you get to read this book, but definitely check out this interview.