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omonatheydidYeonmi Park urges the west to recognise the suffering of North Koreans as country celebrates 70th anniversary
A young North Korean defector and human rights activist has urged the west to not consider dictator Kim Jong-un as a comic figure. “Please don’t see Kim Jong Un as a joke,” she told the Women in the World event in London. “He is killing millions of people.”
Yeonmi Park, a 22-year-old who fled to China before making it to South Korea, described the complete control the dictator had over her childhood. “I believed my dear leader could read my mind, I thought if I thought a bad thing he could punish me,” she said.
Park, who has written about her childhood in a harrowing autobiography, was speaking ahead of Saturday’s celebrations in Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the Korean Workers’ Party.
A young North Korean defector and human rights activist has urged the west to not consider dictator Kim Jong-un as a comic figure. “Please don’t see Kim Jong Un as a joke,” she told the Women in the World event in London. “He is killing millions of people.”
Yeonmi Park, a 22-year-old who fled to China before making it to South Korea, described the complete control the dictator had over her childhood. “I believed my dear leader could read my mind, I thought if I thought a bad thing he could punish me,” she said.
Park, who has written about her childhood in a harrowing autobiography, was speaking ahead of Saturday’s celebrations in Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the Korean Workers’ Party.
Kim Jong-un receives a delegation of the Communist party of China led by Liu Yunshan. Photograph: KCNA/Reuters
At a lavish military parade, Kim said that his country was ready to counter any threat posed by the United States.
Park urged the audience in London to not to take their freedoms for granted. “To me it’s not a joke. This [the west] is a paradise; it is a heaven,” she said. “He is a criminal, he is killing millions there, I hope we see him as not a joke.”
She gave an insight into the repression and fear that North Koreans continue to live under. “I grew up with fear. My mother told me not to whisper because the birds and mice might hear you,” she said.
“Most of all we are hungry, we don’t have the luxury of [thinking about] anything else apart from surviving,” adding that at one point she and her sister resorted to eating grasshoppers and dragon flies because there was no more rice.
When she was 13 she urged her mother to flee to China, after secretly watching Chinese television as a child. “I went for a bowl of rice,” she said. She told the audience that the first thing she saw was her mother being raped. Once in the country, she was sold as a worker for $260; her mother was sold for $65.
“The man who bought me couldn’t feed us, so it was better to sell her to someone who could feed her,” she said.
Age of 15 she crossed the Gobi desert into Mongolia, to reach South Korea. “I followed the northern stars to freedom,” she said. In a rare light moment she described being bewildered by escalators, not understanding why the ground was moving. “When I arrived, everything was shining,” she said. “I went to the toilet and the toilet paper had a flower on it, it smelt so good I thought I’m not going to use it for this reason. It was so pretty.”
She then became a “learning machine”, she added. “I learnt about the universe. I learnt about human rights and human dignity – this was so new to me. Freedom meant for me to wear earrings, not freedom of speech. I don’t think I will ever understand what freedom means, but I am enjoying learning.”
-x-x-x-x-x-
1. [+804, -26] Can't believe 10 year old children are so hungry that they had to resort to eating grasshoppers and dragonflies to eat... ㅠㅠ That pig Jong Un needs to be turned into a barbecue and fed to the dogs
2. [+633, -18] What is there to blame with the people when they are simply living in the only place they can call home. They just have to follow the orders of the higher ups or else lose their homes.
3. [+579, -28] He is a funny pig though
4. [+45, -2] "Freedom to me means being able to wear earring" So sad...
5. [+36, -8] Does North Korea have plastic surgery hospitals too?
6. [+29, -8] Why do these North Korean runaway women always end up getting so much plastic surgery, like they ran away for the sole purpose of getting it ㅋㅋ So many of the runaways go overboard with it like they can't shed their old outdated ways
7. [+21, -4] But if she ran away when she was 13, that was when Kim Jong Il was in power..
8. [+16, -9] What's up with her face? She looks like a plastic monster. For someone who ran away when she was 13, what would she know about Kim Jong Un? Why is she trying to get attention like this about things she has no knowledge about to make a quick buck? People should be looking to runaways who were actually under Kim Jong Un's rule and have proper information. Some of the runaways these days are frustrating to observe.. they all get plastic surgery, are obsessed with luxury goods.. why become like that after all the suffering they did to run away?
9. [+14, -12] She ran away at 13... and she's in her twenties now so it's been 10 years? What would she know ㅋㅋㅋ why would she try to make money like this
-x-x-x-x-x-
More about (and of) Park Yeonmi here, here, and here.
Source | Alexandra Topping for The Guardian, Yonhap News via Nate via Netizen Buzz
A young North Korean defector and human rights activist has urged the west to not consider dictator Kim Jong-un as a comic figure. “Please don’t see Kim Jong Un as a joke,” she told the Women in the World event in London. “He is killing millions of people.”
Yeonmi Park, a 22-year-old who fled to China before making it to South Korea, described the complete control the dictator had over her childhood. “I believed my dear leader could read my mind, I thought if I thought a bad thing he could punish me,” she said.
Park, who has written about her childhood in a harrowing autobiography, was speaking ahead of Saturday’s celebrations in Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the Korean Workers’ Party.
A young North Korean defector and human rights activist has urged the west to not consider dictator Kim Jong-un as a comic figure. “Please don’t see Kim Jong Un as a joke,” she told the Women in the World event in London. “He is killing millions of people.”
Yeonmi Park, a 22-year-old who fled to China before making it to South Korea, described the complete control the dictator had over her childhood. “I believed my dear leader could read my mind, I thought if I thought a bad thing he could punish me,” she said.
Park, who has written about her childhood in a harrowing autobiography, was speaking ahead of Saturday’s celebrations in Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the Korean Workers’ Party.
At a lavish military parade, Kim said that his country was ready to counter any threat posed by the United States.
Park urged the audience in London to not to take their freedoms for granted. “To me it’s not a joke. This [the west] is a paradise; it is a heaven,” she said. “He is a criminal, he is killing millions there, I hope we see him as not a joke.”
She gave an insight into the repression and fear that North Koreans continue to live under. “I grew up with fear. My mother told me not to whisper because the birds and mice might hear you,” she said.
“Most of all we are hungry, we don’t have the luxury of [thinking about] anything else apart from surviving,” adding that at one point she and her sister resorted to eating grasshoppers and dragon flies because there was no more rice.
When she was 13 she urged her mother to flee to China, after secretly watching Chinese television as a child. “I went for a bowl of rice,” she said. She told the audience that the first thing she saw was her mother being raped. Once in the country, she was sold as a worker for $260; her mother was sold for $65.
“The man who bought me couldn’t feed us, so it was better to sell her to someone who could feed her,” she said.
Age of 15 she crossed the Gobi desert into Mongolia, to reach South Korea. “I followed the northern stars to freedom,” she said. In a rare light moment she described being bewildered by escalators, not understanding why the ground was moving. “When I arrived, everything was shining,” she said. “I went to the toilet and the toilet paper had a flower on it, it smelt so good I thought I’m not going to use it for this reason. It was so pretty.”
She then became a “learning machine”, she added. “I learnt about the universe. I learnt about human rights and human dignity – this was so new to me. Freedom meant for me to wear earrings, not freedom of speech. I don’t think I will ever understand what freedom means, but I am enjoying learning.”
1. [+804, -26] Can't believe 10 year old children are so hungry that they had to resort to eating grasshoppers and dragonflies to eat... ㅠㅠ That pig Jong Un needs to be turned into a barbecue and fed to the dogs
2. [+633, -18] What is there to blame with the people when they are simply living in the only place they can call home. They just have to follow the orders of the higher ups or else lose their homes.
3. [+579, -28] He is a funny pig though
4. [+45, -2] "Freedom to me means being able to wear earring" So sad...
5. [+36, -8] Does North Korea have plastic surgery hospitals too?
6. [+29, -8] Why do these North Korean runaway women always end up getting so much plastic surgery, like they ran away for the sole purpose of getting it ㅋㅋ So many of the runaways go overboard with it like they can't shed their old outdated ways
7. [+21, -4] But if she ran away when she was 13, that was when Kim Jong Il was in power..
8. [+16, -9] What's up with her face? She looks like a plastic monster. For someone who ran away when she was 13, what would she know about Kim Jong Un? Why is she trying to get attention like this about things she has no knowledge about to make a quick buck? People should be looking to runaways who were actually under Kim Jong Un's rule and have proper information. Some of the runaways these days are frustrating to observe.. they all get plastic surgery, are obsessed with luxury goods.. why become like that after all the suffering they did to run away?
9. [+14, -12] She ran away at 13... and she's in her twenties now so it's been 10 years? What would she know ㅋㅋㅋ why would she try to make money like this
More about (and of) Park Yeonmi here, here, and here.
Source | Alexandra Topping for The Guardian, Yonhap News via Nate via Netizen Buzz
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no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 06:01 pm (UTC)I can't deal with people who take dictators as a joke and I'm not even speaking about North Korea specifically. I really think people don't realize the brainwashing that comes from dictatorships. It can end and people would still believe in their leaders. The damage is already done.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 06:21 pm (UTC)Also, Yeonmi is so brave. Her story is unbearably sad.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 06:51 pm (UTC)Did ya'll even read the article or???????
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 07:08 pm (UTC)satire is one of the many factors that helped eastern europe to (partially) get rid of oppression. making fun of the party was controlled/censored, you could get punished, etc. so do take kim jong un seriously, but north koreans should make fun of him.
also i normally don't like really plastic faces, but then if it's someone from north korea... i'm just glad they're out of there and will support them with whatever steps they need for self-acceptance. most of them won't ever fit in elsewhere, so yeah, i hope she kind of learns freedom!
well, i'm still learning freedom in some ways, and i'm not even from nk.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 07:24 pm (UTC)edit: whoops, I should specify, NETIZENS' comments*
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 07:48 pm (UTC)i think maybe in the case of south korea it's understandable why they would not take NK seriously, they're in direct conflict (i guess..??) with him every day so the best way to de-escalate is to ignore it/not take it seriously. but for other people it just leads to apathy so...
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 09:54 pm (UTC)Generally I'd say the public are aware of what goes on in the North but it's easier to turn a blind eye to what's going on, much like how many people can walk past those that are homeless on the street. However there are charities and those that protest for more to be done to help North Koreans and defectors. I remember reading about South Koreans sending balloons tied to parcels of Chocopies (a kind of Korean mini cake that's really popular) over the DMZ every year. It is also very difficult for South Koreans to intervene directly with the North. Straying over the DMZ will get you shot and mass movement of South Koreans into the North could break the cease fire and restart the war.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 07:58 pm (UTC)not that I am surprised
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 06:26 am (UTC)sorry if i assumed you weren't korean or haven't lived in kr (?). it'd be one thing if you only criticized these netizens themselves, but your comment itself reeks of pretty unfair generalizations about koreans, esp considering these clickbait, controversial comments (as expected from nb :/) don't actually reflect sk's view on nk runaway speakers.
(i get defensive bc i often see ifans on tumblr and omona making unfair generalizations of koreans based on like, a few translated, comments from nb. it's pretty ridiculous and frustrating.)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 11:58 pm (UTC)your original comment didn't read that way, but i agree that these comments seem like they're written by trolls. i wish ifans would stop caring about knets' comments, especially the nbuzz ones because they're basically the equivalent of gross comments you can find on reddit or youtube.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 08:14 pm (UTC)recently i read the article about the north korean defector (i can't remember his name) who betrayed his mother and brother (who were then hanged). it was so sad. the concentration camps are beyond fucked up.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 08:21 pm (UTC)i think it should be okay to joke about him while you acknowledge the horrendous situation north koreans are in. paying this guy respect shouldnt be the way.
not aimed to this post, but lately i've been noticing how a lot of comments here only reply to the shit-stirring translated netizen reactions and not to the actual content of the article.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 09:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 11:18 pm (UTC)Bc of the last NK post I started following that one guy on Instagram who posts about being in NK. It's so jarring to me, and like ppl were saying before it's very obviously propaganda but still I can't wrap my mind around it. And I know it's Pyongyang so that obviously is why it's so different. I hope when he leaves (if he is able to....) he writes a tell all about what he wasn't able to post.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-15 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-14 08:41 am (UTC)It's such a hard to belive story and amazing read, and have a lot of info on history of entertainment industry in SK and NK
no subject
Date: 2015-10-15 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-15 10:58 pm (UTC)