A North Korean defector's harrowing story of escape
Yeon Mi Park escaped North Korea when she was 13 years old. And escape only brought more challenges. North Korean defectors risk being killed, imprisoned, and trafficked after they escape. This is Park's harrowing story. Following is a transcript of the story.
Narrator: More than 1,000 North Koreans try to escape the country every year. They risk being killed, imprisoned, or trafficked, as they escape through China, Mongolia, and different regions of southeast Asia. This is Yeon Mi Park. She escaped North Korea when she was just 13 years old, and she described her ordeal to us.
Yeon Mi Park: I think, just life was so unbearable in North Korea. I found this note that my sister left, saying that, "Go find this person, and she will help you to go to China." We got that note, and my mother and I found the person, that lady. And then she told me that she had a few daughters, but she sent them all to China, and told me she could help us to go to China. And we did not know that she was a broker, or anything, just we thought, "This stranger woman wants to help us," and that's how we just followed her lead and we escaped at night, the very same day. Initially, I escaped to China, and I was being sold and trafficked and enslaved for two years there.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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