This memoir written by a young North Korean defector tells
the tale of a harrowing life of starvation and deprivation in the Hermit
Kingdom and the heroine’s escape first to China and then to Seoul. This autobiographical account dovetails nicely
with The Orphan Master’s Son, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in North
Korea. Yeonmi at the age of 13 takes her
mother by the hand and insistently leads her across the border with China
believing they are following her older sister Euemni. The year is 2007 and no one in their family
of four can envision survival under the current conditions. It is post famine, but the famine appears to
continue. The entire population except
for the few wealthy and politically powerful is starving. Only those who can pay can attend a real school. The school that does exist organizes children
in work brigades to scour the land for every last piece of edible grain. Often children are reduced to eating weeds
and grass to fill their bellies.
Children and adults fall asleep with hunger pangs, malnutrition and
diseases like TB which plague the perpetually starving and underfed
population. Lice is a common parasite
that plagues the entire population.
Delicacies include grass hoppers which mothers fry up to feed their
families. Yeonmi’s family’s fortunes
have fallen on hard times. Her father
was imprisoned for one of the many crimes available for those engaged in the
black market. He has just been let out
of prison and the family lives with 2 other families in a one room apartment on
the 8th floor of a building that has no elevators. Her father is in bad condition physically and
has been let out of prison for a home visit.
He never returns. Yeonmi has an
appendicitis and her family cannot afford the costs for all the medicine so she
awakens before the entire operation is over.
Her mother could not pay enough for all the needed anesthesia. She slept on a mat on the floor. Her mother seated by her side took care of
her since they could not afford to pay for the nursing care. When she was discharged, a friend brought
around a motorcycle to take her home.
She had to walk up to the 8th floor. The out house was on the 1st
floor. Shortly after that and following
in her sister’s footsteps, they connect with a smuggler whom they must compensate to bring them across the Yalo
river which separates China and North Korea, evade the Chinese police and
troops and hide in the countryside.
There they are trafficked. That is how the smugglers are compensated.
Yeonmi’s mother manages to subject herself to the rapes in order to protect 13
year old Yeonmi. However, they have told
the smugglers that Yeonmi is 18 and her mother is 34. Because of the shortage of females in China
many single men without prospects are willing to pay for a bride. Most are poor farmers. Yeonmi and her mother’s main goal is to get
enough to eat. In China which is also a
poor country, they cannot believe the amount of bounty available to them. They eat eggs, fruit and even meat. What the Chinese throw away as garbage would
have fed a family of 4 for a week in North Korea. Medicine is available from time to time. Yeonmi is a beautiful and bright girl. Thus, every smuggler who meets her wants to
take her as his own mate often gifting her with clothing and jewelry. Still her main concern is to reunite with her
sister, bring her father from North Korea and support her mother. Yeonmi tries very hard to learn Chinese and
she has value b/c she can translate between the North Korean defectors and
their Chinese captors. Yeonmi and her mother are able to communicate by cell
phone. Most of the smugglers are solely
interested in themselves, but some are kinder and try to help her. They are constantly evading the Chinese soldiers
and police whose goal is to repatriate escaped North Koreans. Since they do not have any official
documentation, they are often in hiding.
They try to eke out a living without being raped constantly. Eventually, they find jobs as phone sex
workers which is a great improvement over a bordello. They save as much money as they can and bring
Yeomi’s father across. He is very ill
and the Chinese doctors diagnose him with widely spread and metastasized colon
cancer. Their current goal is to keep
him comfortable while he dies. They do
not always have enough money for all the pain killers he needs. Their own goals are put on hold until he
passes away.
Once he dies, they cremate him and bury his ashes. Then they connect with a semi-legal missionary
group whose goal is to bring these North Korean defectors to South Korea. There they may openly practice
Christianity. Yeonmi and her mother pretend
they are devout Christians and they pray up a storm waiting to be smuggled to
Mongolia where they can practice Christianity openly and then to Seoul.
In Seoul, they are aided by the government which has a
program for North Korean defectors.
Yeonmi continues her education eventually graduating from college. She
becomes a public speaker who is highly in demand. She was the featured speaker at the One World
conference. She gives Ted talks, and speaks
English. She has a flair for
languages. Thus, she also speaks well in
English. Eventually she finds her sister
who escaped about two years after she and her mother did.
In 2016, Yeonmi moved to New York where she wrote her memoir
and entered Columbia majoring in economics.
She is married and has a son. She
continues to be an activist for human rights.
She makes public speeches about her experiences in North Korea and has a
successful and productive life.
