In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom

"This is the incredible, true story of thirteen-year-old Yeonmi Park, who risked her life when she and her family fled North Korea. Revealing what it was like to live under a brutally repressive regime, which starved and terrorized its people, Yeonmi tells of her family’s courageous decision to escape and of the extraordinary, heartbreaking journey that followed, culminating in a daring night-time trek across the Gobi Desert to freedom."

This book is not an easy read. It tells of Yeonmi Park’s journey to escape the brutal oppression of life in North Korea. It is at all times impressive, heartbreaking, and makes you appreciate how good your life is and how bad some people truly have it.

The book begins by detailing life in North Korea. It paints a tragic picture of the struggles of her family and the people of North Korea to survive. Even before ten years old, she would see dead bodies in the local street. Every day is a struggle for food, warmth, safety. Freedom has never existed for its natives: aside from the black market dealings and activities, Kim Jong Il’s socialist regime deprives its citizens of what they need.

It’s not only the people who lack what they need. Even big city hospitals lack enough equipment, so there is no such thing as ‘disposable supplies’.

Bandages are washed and reused. Nurses go from room to room using the same syringe on every patient. They know this is dangerous, but they have no choice. When I came to South Korea, I was amazed when the doctors threw away the tools they had just used on me.

People take to stealing, eating their pets and scrounging for food. It is an everyday struggle. She writes:

There were so many desperate people on the streets crying for help that you had to shut off your heart or the pain would be too much. After a while you don’t care anymore. And that is what hell is like. (pp.55)

The propaganda of North Korea brainwashes citizens, of which Yeonmi discusses how some people she knows are fanatics of the regime, whereas her father is like Winston from Orwell’s 1984, conscious of what’s going on but powerless to prevent it. The book’s character development, as such, is the progression of Yeonmi’s mental battles over the course of the story to overcome years of indoctrination.

She speaks of (illegally) managing to watch the Titanic:

"But while the outside media offered me a glimpse of a larger world very different from the one I occupied, I never imagined I could live life the characters in those movies. I couldn’t look at the people on the screen and think they were real, or allow myself to envy their lives. The propaganda we were fed inoculated me from any lessons I might apply to my own life. It also made me numb to the suffering that was going on all around me as the famine was taking its terrible toll." (pp.53)

Her story progresses to relaying how her family becomes tarnished as criminals due to her father’s involvement in black market selling to survive. This is a huge risk because if caught, multiple generations of the family could be punished. Transgressions against the regime often lead to any relatives being punished, often for multiple generations of family. There is always huge risk.

Even amongst the more obvious traumas and desperation in finding enough food, there is the heartbreaking story of her involvement with a boy who she knows she cannot stay with because of their differences in the North Korean classes of society: if they married he would be tarnished as part of her criminal family, so she sadly knows their relationship will never go anywhere. They are left with an untenable situation.

How to rate such a story? There isn’t much need for imagery and the story speaks for itself. But Yeonmi relays the struggles of life and the trauma she faced from human traffickers effectively. She tries to give insight into what she was thinking as events progressed: from the hopelessness of her situation and contemplating suicide to having to completely rethink her perception of the world that had been drilled into her by her country of birth.

The story demonstrates a family having to survive in daily suffering. The suffering is such that the Yeonmi is too trusting and is treated poorly by people who are there to take advantage. Although a non-fiction book, she makes for an engaging character that you’re rooting for. It weaves illustrations of Yeonmi’s dictated ignorance in terms of sex, plenitude of food in other countries and the freedom of life in other countries succinctly. It talks about the strained relations of her family stretched due to the struggles they constantly face. Despite all this, there are moments of relief. She talks of her joy of getting to a visit a big city for the first time, or how brilliant a strawberry tastes. The book is about suffering but there are moments of respite, and towards the end there is a degree of absolution from all the pain.

It is the kind of book everyone should read, to remind ourselves that in some places in the world unimaginable suffering is happening. Hopefully books like these brings attention and change to problems like this, but you cannot help but feel for the people living in it now and in the future.

In terms of final score, it’s the kind of book that leaves an indelible mark on you, and a unique and heartbreaking story. It is hard to criticise because it is a unique kind of book, one that doesn’t need to be written spectacularly because of the spectacular story. In a fictional book, we would say it has a brilliant plot. But as a non-fiction story, it is one of suffering that needs to be told and is unforgettable, and is a page-turner throughout.

Yeonmi fortunately now speaks out about her experiences and lives in the USA.

8/10