This TED Talk features human rights activist Yianmi Park, recorded live at TED 2019.

For more about Yianmi's story, read the footnotes on TED.com.

I was born in 1993 in the northern part of North Korea, in a town called Hesan,

which is on the board with China.

I had loving parents and one older sister.

Before I was even 10 years old,

my father was sent to labor camp for engaging in illegal trading. Now, by illegal

trading. He was selling clots, sugar, rice, and later copper to feed us.

In 2007, my sister and I decided to escape.

She was 16 years old and I was 13 years old.

I need you to understand what the word escape means in the context of North Korea. We are starving, and hunger means death in North Korea.

So it was the only option for us.

I didn't even understand the concept of escape,

but I cursed the lights from China at night.

And I wondered, if I goes to where the light is,

I might be able to find a bottle of rice.

It's not like we had a grand plan or maps. We did not know anything what was going to happen.

Imagine your apartment building called fire. I mean, what would you do?

Would you stay there to be burned?

Or would you jump off out of the window and see what happens?

That's what we did.

We jumped out of the house inside the fire.

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