In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
Non Fiction
Yeonmi
Park’s memoir describes her escape from North Korea to China at thirteen, her
harrowing life in China, her trek through the Gobi Desert, and eventually her
adjustment to life as a college student and human rights activist. This
remarkable journey depicts the horrors that she faced in North Korea and as a
sex slave in China. These hardships include the psychological and physical
struggles of escaping North Korea and her past.
Some people have criticized Yeonmi for inconsistencies in
her accounts to the media. Some of these inconsistencies are as minor as statements
that her mom had a Chanel handbag while in North Korea, but some are more
significant, such as her claim that she saw dead bodies in a river. A
particularly significant inconsistency involves her saying that she witnessed
the execution of her friend’s mom when she was nine (in 2002), although there
have not been any large scale executions in North Korea since 2000.
As
a girl, Yeonmi may have actually believed that her mom had a Chanel handbag and
only realized that the handbag was a knockoff when the press pointed out the
improbability. In her book, Yeonmi said that the bags were probably knockoffs. As
for seeing dead bodies in the river on the way to school, a reporter said that
he traveled to North Korea and didn’t see any corpses in the river. That may
have been true when the reporter visited, but during her childhood, Yeonmi might
have seen a few dead bodies in the river.
The
location of the execution and the reason for it have also been inconsistent,
but Yeonmi has been through hardships that hardly anyone has experienced, which
could have muddled her memory. This execution was not mentioned in the book.
There
have been various other inconsistencies, which could be the result of PTSD or
she could have just plain forgotten. The point is, Yeonmi has very little
reason to lie about her experiences in North Korea. Yeonmi mentions that even
though she is in South Korea now, North Korea still watches her. Merely speaking out puts her safety in danger,
and even if an event didn’t happen to her, it may have happened to another
defector or another citizen of North Korea. Yeonmi confesses at the end of her
book that she can’t hide her past, but instead should use it to bring attention
to the atrocities that are happening inside North Korea.
