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Best of the Spectator

Marshall Matters: Yeonmi Park

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News, Daily News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.3826 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2023

⏱️ 67 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector who from fled home country through China where she was saved by Christian missionaries. She is the author of two books, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom and While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America. Yeonmi now lives in the US, where she writes and campaigns for freedom of speech. She tells Winston about her astonishing journey to freedom, how China props up the Korea dictatorship and the impact of Jordan Peterson on her life.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

The Spectator combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority.

0:06.4

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0:11.8

and get a £20 £20,000 Amazon gift voucher absolutely free.

0:15.6

Go to spectator.com.uk slash summer.

0:30.3

Hello and welcome to Marshall Matters with me, Winston Marshall for The Spectator.

0:35.7

Today I'm in Oslo and I have the privilege of speaking to North Korean defector,

0:39.9

activist, author of the books, in order to live a North Korean girl's journey to freedom, and while time remains, Yonmi Park.

0:44.1

Yonmi, thank you so much for speaking with me today.

0:45.9

Thank you for having me on your show.

0:47.6

Well, I've just read your book and this astonishing journey, and I know you've spoken

0:52.6

about it a lot from North Korea, through China,

0:56.0

saved by Christian ministries, taken to Mongolia, then to South Korea, then to America.

1:02.7

And now, I mean, from that astonishing start in North Korea, and you wrote about your father,

1:09.3

going to the gulag and the very grim experience

1:11.6

of your fellow North Koreans. And now in America, but also I find you in Oslo speaking at the

1:17.4

Oslo Freedom Forum. And it's rather a change. I wondered how distant North Korea felt to you

1:23.5

now, looking back at it. Yeah, I think in a way, sometimes I have, like, having time to, like, connect it.

1:32.2

A lot of times it feels like I travel to a different universe or at least like different planet.

1:37.7

And first, several years, I had a hard time to adjust it.

1:42.9

And now it's been quite some time, and I feel quite adjust to the new environment, thankfully.

1:49.0

Oh, that's good.

1:50.0

Does it seem somewhat miraculous to you, your journey?

...

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