#196 – Yeonmi Park: North Korea
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2021
⏱️ 126 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector, human rights activist, and author of the book In Order to Live. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Yeonmi’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/YeonmiParkNK
Yeonmi’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialyeonmipark
Yeonmi’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/YeonmiParkOfficial
In Order to Live (book): https://amzn.to/3wdtKfL
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(09:20) – Growing up in North Korea
(14:45) – Animal Farm
(21:00) – Search for meaning
(25:48) – Love
(28:05) – Language
(32:28) – Yeonmi’s dad
(34:30) – Escaping North Korea
(39:47) – The world is ignoring the genocide in North Korea
(51:49) – Evil
(54:40) – Nuclear war
(55:30) – Marxist origins of North Korea
(1:00:43) – Famine
(1:05:30) – Kim Jong-un is pure evil
(1:12:06) – Freedom
(1:15:18) – Michael Malice
(1:18:57) – Diversity
(1:26:18) – Political correctness
(1:35:50) – Jordan Peterson
(1:40:01) – Michael Malice book on North Korea
(1:45:31) – Advice for young people
(1:48:33) – Facing assassination
(1:58:47) – Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
(2:01:20) – Meaning of life
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Yon Mi Park, a North Korean defector, human rights activist, |
| 0:06.1 | and author of the book in order to live. |
| 0:10.4 | Quick mention of our sponsors, Balcampo, Gallagames, BetterHelp, and 8 Sleep. |
| 0:16.2 | Check them out in the description to support this podcast. |
| 0:20.0 | Let me say a few words about North Korea. |
| 0:23.0 | From 1994 to 1998, North Korea went through a famine. |
| 0:27.4 | Mass starvation caused primarily by King Jung Il, who at the time was the new leader of North Korea |
| 0:34.8 | after his father's death in 1994. |
| 0:37.7 | Somewhere between 600,000 and 3 million people died due to starvation. |
| 0:45.2 | From all the stories of famine and history, including my own family history, I've come to |
| 0:50.5 | understand that hunger tortures the human mind in a way that can break everything we stand |
| 0:56.8 | for. |
| 0:57.8 | In North Korea, during the 90s famine, many were driven to cannibalism. |
| 1:03.0 | Imagine, more than 10 million people suffering starvation for months and years, always on |
| 1:09.7 | the brink of death. |
| 1:11.6 | We don't know the exact numbers of people who died because the suffering was done in silence |
| 1:16.9 | in darkness. |
| 1:18.6 | Very little information in or out. |
| 1:21.6 | Most people had to survive without electricity, without clean water, medical supplies, sanitation, |
| 1:28.1 | and food. |
| 1:29.6 | The North Korean propaganda machine called this the Arduous March, or the March of Suffering, |
| 1:35.2 | and words such as famine and hunger were banned because they implied government failure. |
... |
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