I first heard about Yeonmi Park on Joe Rogan’s podcast. She’s a North Korean defector who has been making a number of media appearances over the past few years. I haven’t followed much of Joe Rogan’s podcasts since he moved to Spotify (Youtube is just easier to use on fly). I thought this was good though – so good that I picked up her book. As one of Japan’s nearest neighbours, North Korea frequently comes up in the news here mostly due its bellicose behaviour. Even in Ireland it is a topic of some fascination. I thought “In Order to Live” might provide some insights into this mysterious country.
Yeonmi’s account starts with her upbringing in North Korea. She describes her simple but austere childhood, her school life, the joy of hidden contraband, and how she was constantly hungry. Day to day life in North Korea does not come across as a living hell because the population seem inoculated against their own lack of control and feudal living standards. The government propaganda machine influences everything from their house decor to the language they speak. Yet Yeonmi’s father with his underground operation selling metals around the country shows that there is a certain tolerance for small scale corruption and bending the rules. The circumstances which lead to her escape heavily involve her father’s operation and the North Korean caste system whereby one family member’s transgressions against the state can doom the family name and their ability to earn a living for generations.
I have a South Korean friend here in Tokyo who I have asked about his neighbours to the north. From him, I found out that most escapees from the north will actually travel along a dangerous northern route through China rather than attempt to traverse the southern border where there’s a good chance they could be shot on sight. Yeonmi herself made the journey through China where escapees are often trafficked into the sex trade and then through the Gobi desert to Mongolia before finally reaching South Korea. In South Korea they face the difficult challenge of integrating.
I think what did strike me about Yeonmi, apart from surviving a horrendous series of experiences, was how she was able to learn so much in such a short time. In China, Yeonmi became proficient enough in Chinese to talk to her captors and translate for other escapees. In South Korea she had to catch up with the local education system which is renowned as one of the most strenuous in the world (Famously the police are brought out onto the streets to help students taking their college entry exams get to the test stations on time). And then for extra credit, she learned English as well and now she’s a bestselling author. It is a story about how she survived and then worked really hard and went on to be a success.
Yeonmi’s account as well as accounts of other North Korean defectors are often disputed. And Yeonmi herself also courts controversy with her comments likening the American university system to her home country’s form of government. A lot of the attacks on her credibility do seem politically motivated when I read them. However, I do think there’s a lot that can be taken from this book. My own image of North Korea prior to reading this book was mostly based on the James Bond film “Die Another Day” so in my head the country looked like a bleak minefield more so than a place where real people lived. It is an interesting account of how regular North Koreans live.
