Yeonmi Park: What I learned about freedom after escaping North Korea
Γεόνμι Παρκ: Τι έμαθα για την ελευθερία, δραπετεύοντας από τη Βόρεια Κορέα
North Korean defector Yeonmi Park is becoming a leading voice of oppressed people around the world. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
in the northern part of North Korea,
της Βόρειας Κορέας,
σε στρατόπεδο εργασίας
rice and later copper
ρύζι και αργότερα χαλκό
decided to escape.
αποφασίσαμε να δραπετεύσουμε.
what the word "escape" means
πείνα σημαίνει θάνατος.
the concept of escape,
την έννοια του δραπετεύω,
from China at night,
αν πήγαινα όπου είναι τα φώτα,
about what was going to happen.
building caught fire.
what it feels like to live there.
που να μπορούν να την περιγράψουν,
your life on Mars right now.
πώς είναι να ζεις τώρα στον Άρη.
has only one meaning:
έχει μία μόνο σημασία:
of romantic love in North Korea.
αγάπης στη Βόρεια Κορέα.
understand the concept,
that concept is even a possibility.
ότι αυτή η έννοια είναι πιθανή.
is an almighty god
είναι ένας παντοδύναμος θεός,
ακόμα και τη σκέψη μας.
να σκεφτώ στη Βόρεια Κορέα.
he was actually a dictator,
ήταν ένας δικτάτορας,
looking at a picture of him,
απ' όλους στη φωτογραφία.
ότι δεν πεινούσε.
μου είπε ότι ήταν χοντρός.
that he was fat.
ότι ήταν χοντρός.
critical thinking,
what you're told to see.
ό,τι σου λένε να βλέπεις.
inside North Korea?
μέσα στη Βόρεια Κορέα;»
for 70 years of this oppression?"
τα 70 αυτά χρόνια καταπίεσης;»
you're isolated or oppressed,
απομονωμένοι ή καταπιεσμένοι,
definition of isolation,
ότι ζούσα στο κέντρο του σύμπαντος.
in the center of the universe.
ότι ήμουν στο κέντρο του σύμπαντος.
what is right and wrong,
τι είναι σωστό και τι λάθος,
justice and injustice,
on the street right now,
and dead on the streets.
the concept of compassion.
την έννοια της συμπόνιας.
empathy and sympathy in my heart
και οίκτο στην καρδιά μου,
"compassion" and the concept,
«συμπόνια» και την έννοιά της,
as a free person.
our President Trump,
ο πρόεδρος μας, ο Τραμπ,
is not important enough
δεν είναι αρκετά σημαντικά
for executing his uncle,
για την εκτέλεση του θείου του,
του ετεροθαλούς αδερφού του,
something new about freedom now.
κάτι καινούριο για την ελευθερία.
George Orwell's "1984."
στο «1984» του Τζωρτζ Όργουελ.
για τα ανθρώπινα δικαιώματα,
right now who don't have a voice,
καταπιεσμένοι και δεν έχουν φωνή
when we are not free?
αν χάσουμε την ελευθερία μας;
that we care about climate change,
για την κλιματική αλλαγή,
την ισότητα των φύλων,
about animals' rights,
για τα δικαιώματα των ζώων
how beautiful our heart is,
who cannot speak for themselves.
να μιλήσουν για τον εαυτό τους.
cannot speak for themselves.
να μιλήσουν για τον εαυτό τους.
in the 21st century.
στο διαδίκτυο στον 21ο αιώνα.
on earth right now.
στον πλανήτη αυτή τη στιγμή.
to my fellow North Koreans
Βορειοκορεάτες συμπατριώτες μου,
that an alternative life is possible.
ότι είναι δυνατή μια διαφορετική ζωή.
για πάντα σ' αυτόν τον κόσμο.
every reason to be hopeful.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Yeonmi Park - Human rights activistNorth Korean defector Yeonmi Park is becoming a leading voice of oppressed people around the world.
Why you should listen
Yeonmi Park's escape from North Korea has given the world a window into the lives of its people. At the 2014 Oslo Freedom Forum and the One Young World Summit in Dublin, Park became an international phenomenon, delivering passionate and deeply personal speeches about the brutality of the North Korean regime. Her address to One Young World on the horrors of detention camps, political executions and sex trafficking has been viewed over 320 million times on YouTube. The BBC named her one of their "Top Global Women."
In 2017, Park joined the Tory Burch Foundation's Embrace Ambition campaign, a global effort to dispel the double standard of ambition as a positive trait in men and a negative trait in women. Her searing memoir, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom, was released in the fall 2015, and now she's urging the world to recognize the oppressed people of Kim Jong-Un's reign. She believes that change will come through young people like herself, whose exposure to capitalism and Western media is eroding the authority of the Kim dynasty.
Currently a student at Columbia University, Park has published an op-ed about North Korea's "black market generation” in the Washington Post and has been featured on CNN, CNBC and the BBC, as well as in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. She serves on the executive board of directors of the Human Rights Foundation, the world's preeminent organization devoted to disrupting dictatorships.
Yeonmi Park | Speaker | TED.com