North Korean Defector Yeonmi Park's Public Lecture in Prosperity

Jung Hyun Park 01/24/2016 20:15 Read : 1,556

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"Beauty Defector," Yeonmi Park shares her story and speaks to students at the University of Washington about the importance of dignity and human rights issue in North Korea.


On January 16th, the UW Korean Library and the UW North Korean Human Rights Club, THINK (President Hwayeon Myeong) collaborated to produce a Booksori event, “Conversation with Yeonmi Park”


At the event, an iconic North Korean human rights activist who is also a North Korean defector, Yeonmi Park spoke about her life in North Korea and the difficulties that North Korean refugees must face.


Prior to the speech, Yeonmi emphasized that this was the first time that she was giving a speech in Korean
. Yeonmi said she was also very pleased to see many Koreans that had come out to the event because the issue of human rights in North Korea is generally more popular amongst foreigners, and that she would like to see more Koreans involved with the issue.


Remarkably, Yeonmi’s stressed the importance of dignity. She testified that even when her dream of having a bucket full of bread came true, she was not happy – because she did not have the sense of dignity. After escaping from North Korea, Yeonmi was afraid of prejudice. She wanted to hide the fact that she was a defector. However, after she admitted herself as a defector and shared her story as a North Korean refugee, she became dignified. She was proud to promulgate the issue of human rights in North Korea so that more people can be educated on this m
atter.


Yeonmi recently wrote an autobiography, “In Order to Live,” which is a memoir about her escape from North Korea. This book has been translated into 15 different languages
 and was released in 18 different countries to give a wider publicity.


At the end of the event, Yeonmi made a close connection with a great number in the audience that came out to the event by having a Q&A session.



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