Yeonmi Park: What I learned about freedom after escaping North Korea
박연미 (Yeonmi Park): 탈북 후 자유에 대해 알게 된 것
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,
끌려가셨습니다.
rice and later copper
decided to escape.
북한을 탈출하기로 마음먹었습니다.
what the word "escape" means
the concept of escape,
이해하지 못했습니다.
from China at night,
불빛들을 볼 수 있었습니다.
지도 같은 건 없었습니다.
about what was going to happen.
전혀 몰랐습니다.
building caught fire.
불이 났다고 생각해 봅시다.
what it feels like to live there.
어땠는지 물을 때입니다.
설명할 수 없습니다.
your life on Mars right now.
상상할 수 없듯이 말이죠.
has only one meaning:
뜻이 하나 밖에 없습니다.
of romantic love in North Korea.
개념 자체가 없습니다.
understand the concept,
that concept is even a possibility.
상상 못하게 됩니다.
is an almighty god
진심으로 믿어 왔었고
생각했습니다.
생각하는 것조차 두려워했습니다.
he was actually a dictator,
독재자라고 얘기했습니다.
하고 있다고 했습니다.
looking at a picture of him,
그의 사진을 봤을 때입니다.
그는 굶주리고 있지 않았습니다.
that he was fat.
그는 뚱뚱한 거라고 가르쳐 주었습니다.
critical thinking,
비판적 사고를 해 본 적이 없었다면
what you're told to see.
보게 될 것입니다.
inside North Korea?
일어나지 않는가입니다.
for 70 years of this oppression?"
왜 한 번도 혁명이 일어나지 않을까요?
you're isolated or oppressed,
억압을 받고 있는 것도 모른다면
definition of isolation,
진정한 고립이라고 볼 수 있죠.
in the center of the universe.
이제부터 얘기해 볼게요.
what is right and wrong,
옳고 그름을 분별하여
justice and injustice,
없는 것을 안다고 합니다.
on the street right now,
죽어 가고 있는 것을 봤을 때
최선을 다할 것입니다.
and dead on the streets.
이미 죽은 사람들을 본 적이 있습니다.
the concept of compassion.
배운 적이 없었으니까요.
empathy and sympathy in my heart
느낄 수 있었던 것은
"compassion" and the concept,
배우고 나서였습니다.
as a free person.
자유롭게 살고 있습니다.
our President Trump,
트럼프 대통령이
신을 만났습니다.
is not important enough
중요하지 않다고 판단하시고
for executing his uncle,
자기 삼촌을 사형시키고
죽였는데도 말이죠.
something new about freedom now.
배워야 하는 것 입니다.
사실입니다.
George Orwell's "1984."
나오는 국가 되었습니다.
right now who don't have a voice,
살아가는 사람들을 위해서
when we are not free?
누가 우릴 위해 싸워 줄까요?
that we care about climate change,
about animals' rights,
how beautiful our heart is,
who cannot speak for themselves.
관심을 기울인다는 뜻입니다.
cannot speak for themselves.
목소리를 낼 수 없습니다.
in the 21st century.
인터넷도 사용할 수 없죠.
on earth right now.
to my fellow North Koreans
우리 북한 사람들에게
that an alternative life is possible.
말해 주고 싶습니다.
영원한 것은 없다는 것 입니다.
every reason to be hopeful.
희망을 품어도 된다고 생각합니다.
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