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

by Yeonmi Park

In North Korea, it’s not enough for the government to control where you go, what you learn, where you work, and what you say. They need to control you through your emotions, making you a slave to the state by destroying your individuality, and your ability to react to situations based on your own experience of the world.

Radios and televisions came sealed and permanently tuned to state-approved channels. If you tampered with them, you could be arrested and sent to a labor camp for reeducation, but a lot of people did it anyway.

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 can’t care anymore. And that is what hell is like.

Just about every morning we woke up to the sound of the national anthem blaring on the government-supplied radio. Every household in North Korea had to have one, and you could never turn it off. It was tuned to only one station, and that’s how the government could control you even when you were in your own home.

It’s not easy to give up a worldview that is built into your bones and imprinted on your brain like the sound of your own father’s voice.

when you have more words to describe the world, you increase your ability to think complex thoughts.

living a meaningful life requires embracing something bigger than yourself.

It amazed me how quickly a lie loses its power in the face of truth. Within minutes, something I had believed for many years simply vanished.

I learned something else that day: we all have our own deserts. They may not be the same as my desert, but we all have to cross them to find a purpose in life and be free.

I had risked my life to escape from North Korea, yet they were still trying to control me. I would never be free if I let them do that.