In this engaging dialogue, Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector and author, shares her haunting experiences growing up in a repressive regime. She discusses her harrowing escape, including the trauma of human trafficking, and the contrasting opportunities she found in America. Yeonmi critiques the hypocrisy of elites and modern education, drawing parallels between oppression in North Korea and increasing restrictions on freedoms in the U.S. Her journey embodies resilience and highlights the value of liberty, inspiring hope for future generations.
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Childhood in North Korea
Yeonmi Park's earliest memories of North Korea include a lack of color and daily loyalty rituals to the Kim regime.
Her mother's first lesson was silence, emphasizing the danger of words.
insights INSIGHT
Absence of Concepts
In North Korea, the concepts of stress, PTSD, depression, and even happiness are absent.
Survival is the daily focus, with no guarantee of making it to the next day.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Famine and Starvation
During the famine, North Korean families faced impossible choices like deciding who to feed and who would starve.
Cannibalism occurred, and the regime prioritized missile tests over feeding its people.
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In this memoir, Yeonmi Park recounts her struggle to survive in North Korea under the oppressive rule of Kim Jong-il. She describes her escape to China at the age of 13, where she and her mother faced severe hardships, including human trafficking. The book details their perilous journey across the Gobi Desert to Mongolia and eventually to South Korea, highlighting the challenges of adjusting to a new life and overcoming years of indoctrination. Park's story is a testament to her resilience and her emergence as a leading human rights activist before her 21st birthday.
While Time Remains
Yeonmi Park
In *While Time Remains*, Yeonmi Park shares her journey from escaping North Korea to finding freedom in America, only to encounter a chilling crackdown on self-expression. The book explores the fragility of freedom and the dangers of authoritarian tendencies in the United States. Park critiques the culture wars and identity politics, emphasizing the importance of preserving freedom.
Animal Farm
George Orwell
Published in 1945, 'Animal Farm' is a novella that allegorically represents the Russian Revolution and the subsequent rise of Stalinism. The story begins with Old Major, a boar, inspiring the animals of Manor Farm to rebel against their human oppressor, Mr. Jones. After the rebellion, the animals rename the farm 'Animal Farm' and establish a utopian society based on the principles of equality and solidarity, known as Animalism. However, as time passes, the pigs, led by Napoleon and Snowball, consolidate power and gradually corrupt the original ideals, leading to a dystopian regime that mirrors the oppressive human rule they initially rebelled against. The novel critiques totalitarianism and the corrupting nature of power, reflecting Orwell's experiences and views on the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule.
Megyn Kelly is joined for an extended, wide-ranging interview by Yeonmi Park, author of "While Time Remains," to talk about her childhood in North Korea, the harrowing conditions she grew up in, making her escape as a teenager, friendship and love while in an oppressive regime, her escape to China and tortuous conditions she and her family faced, coming to the United States, America's promise and opportunity, woke college students and professors, the hypocrisy of America's elites, China's influence in America, hope for the future, and more.
The Megyn Kelly Show 
