Biographical Research Paper: Yeonmi Park 2015

Biographical Research Paper: Yeonmi Park

2015

People Desire to be Free

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is far from being democratic, of the people, or a republic (Yeonmi Park – Escaping). Much better known as North Korea, the DPRK has been separate from the other half of the Korean peninsula for over six decades (Spencer). However, as of 2000 and 2007, official summits between North and South Korea have allowed some split-up family visits, joint military training summits, and meetings between political leaders, all in hopes of unity (NKSC). Although in the government, the two countries have agreed that unity is inevitable, wider cultural gaps between the two Koreas over time has generated more public dissent (Harlan). Like anyone, Yeonmi Park has her opinion on the unification of North and South Korea. But as a former North Korean citizen and now refugee, Park advocates for awareness of and change in the North Korean peoples’ standard of living (Gupta). It is her own past experience with the North Korean regime and current life in South Korea that influences her support of the unification of the peninsula.

Yeonmi Park was born in 1993, not only to the North Korean regime, but to the start of the Jangmadang, or “Black Market Generation”. For years, the totalitarian, stalinist dictatorship conditioned and brainwashed its citizens through propaganda, censorship, and outright misinformation (Nordlinger). Every show, every story, every song, is propaganda glorifying the Kims, the family in power (Yeonmi Park – Escaping). In addition to hailing the Kims as saviors of their land, propaganda paints the outside world as destitute and horrid, with the US in particular portrayed as evil and a major enemy #1 (Gupta). Any doubt towards the regime would be silenced (Park). However, extreme punishment is a standard in North Korean society, and as is extreme precaution (Park). Park remembers as a child concluding the Kim dictators were mind readers, for she would...