My name is Yeonmi Park and it is a real privilege to speak to you

I was born in 1993 in the city of Hyesan

So Hyesan is just right on the Chinese border

So occasionally I could even smell very like fatty oily delicious noodles cooking from China

And sometimes when I was little, some Chinese kids were asking me "are you hungry there?"

And they would shout across the river and I would say "Oh shut up", you know

You are a fat Chinese!

Sorry no, no offense. Yeah I like them

My family was really happy when most of the men worked as police and doctors and as soldiers

And their wives often came from political families

So belonging to Choson Rodongdang or Worker's Party of North Korea is a huge privilege

But most of North Koreans are not so lucky

And in North Korea there is a Songbun caste system

So that means there is opportunities and positions in the life

So you don't have to plan anything and you don't even have to think too much

Because they control everything, they are telling you what to do in the future

Yeah this is me and my sister and my family picture

So yeah when I was about four or five, my father had a business venture trading from Pyongyang to Hyesan

So my sister and I had to move back a lot between Pyongyang and Hyesan

Because he lived in Pyongyang from 1998

When I was young I went to school and of course I learned about how great our leader was, you know

is I mean... but that was not anything special for me because I had so much fun playing with my friends

Like go riverside and hiking and swimming

Or sometimes I could even play Super Mario game at our friends houses

You guys know what is Super Mario Game right?

I'm still looking for that mushroom to getting me bigger, taller!

Yeah if you know, just tell me after this

I went to Pyongyang and Pyongyang was huge

While living there I could go to a fancy restaurant for the first time in my life

In the morning the cheery songs blast out over the loud city speakers

So that means I was in North Korea, the government say

the propaganda like "Oh we are a happy country, everybody is happy"

But in 2004 my whole world came crashing down

My father, my hero was arrested for his illegal trading business

And that was three long years before I saw my father again

And because of that I could not live in Pyongyang anymore, so I had to go back to Hyesan

Back in Hyesan I saw a new side of North Korea

This can be explained by the Black Market Generation, which includes me

So this generation is those who grow up without much food supplies from the government

So we had to survive by ourselves

So look here at these pictures, people are selling, bargaining and buying like markets here, right?

I think this symbolized the new free-spirit of my generation

So I think this is the hope for North Korean freedom for several key reasons

Firstly, our relationship with the Kim dynasty is hugely different

Because I never experienced any good life under their regime

Kim Il-sung passed away in 2004 (correction 1994) and I was born in 1993, so I don't have any memory of him

Not like some North Koreans who still have a really good memory of Kim Il-sung's time

During his time not many people were starving or dying for food

So they still think Kim Il-sung is a good leader

But, you know, our kids and my case, I don't care who is that guy, you know

He was died after I was born one year later

Therefore, we have less loyalty for the regime and never sincerely worshipped him

And secondly we had more wide access to the outside media

So here Titanic, Cinderella, Snow White, 007

All the Hollywood and Disney movies

Here is California, where is Hollywood by the way?

Yeah, I'm so excited now

Yeah, so I saw all these movies, I even saw like WWF, like wrestling

Is there anybody seeing that here? Put your hands up

Oh okay, good! I saw that when I was just five. It was so violent

I thought that most Americans have like big muscles here, you know

But you guys are not, so, yeah

So that was me, when I was in North Korea I wanted to be like a princess

waiting for the prince riding a white horse, that was my dream too

Watching these foreign medias, that was a huge joy to see this different world

It was so fascinating to see the people, how can they express themselves individually

How people can have their own unique style

So I made a paper doll and made some unique dress for my paper doll

Even though I cannot do it in public, in North Korea, so I like expressed my desire through that doll

And while watching all these movies with my friends, and they told me that they want to live in society like that

Like South Korea, where they can express their desire and they can be free

In North Korea they don't have any freedom to sing, listen to, wear, even dance

What is wrong with my body right? So they have to control every clothes

You cannot even wear skinny pants and wear a sexy dress. You cannot dance and move your hips, you know. It's so ridiculous right?

We really, really hate it. So underground we dance and we will do the disco, you know. Watching the movies

So I can do the wave sometime

Yeah so today we are more capitalistic and individualistic

Because when I was just seven I was just busy working with my homework from school

And my father just told me that, "as long a you know how to count money, you don't have to know all these things"

So I thought about it and then learning about Kims, it was not anything useful and practical at all

So I quit, I didn't really study much after that

That means, how much we really care about the market

You know how to survive by ourselves, without relying on the government

So government's Kim dynasty was really nothing to us

And of course we are more individualistic so I think this is a really key point

Once you start trading for yourself, you start thinking for yourself

That is a really big problem for the totalitarian government

So why I left Korea is my father's imprisonment destroyed my reputation too

So under Songbun Caste System his sins are my sins, so I am guilty too

So I wanted to get married with a man who has a good background

And I wanted to go to university being a doctor, but I was guilty and I couldn't go to university

So there was no bright future for me, so we had to get out from there

I went to China with my family, so my mom my father and I had an older sister

You saw the picture but I lost her

Three people went to China and for the first time I couldn't believe my eyes

Like in the streets the kids were dying their hair and ripped the jeans, you know, they were so free

And I was like "oh my god, I cannot believe this" In China I could see all these movies in public

So, wow, this is really heaven, this is the life that I was expecting for

But in China as a North Korean refugee, I could not have enjoyed all these things

Because in China the Chinese government do not accept us as refugee status

So I had to hide everytime and always be careful, so I can say that that was the most hardest time in my life

And really sadly my father passed away in 2008 for the colon cancer

So my mom and I had to find a way to leave again

So we took the most dangerous journey, we went to inner Mongolia in temperature minus 40 degrees

It was really cold and included a three year old boy

So we put him to sleep, not making any noise, so we gave him some medicine to sleep and we just walked

So I crossed the 16-wire fence in that temperature, and so I brought one compass but it was not useful at all

So I just literally followed the poster from the Big Dipper

Just follow the star, and then I made it, yeah I really made it

So I got into South Korea and when I was just finally emerged from the system I was a free woman

But I also faced challenges fending for myself in South Korean society

And sometimes I had struggles with my identity, so "who am I?" "Am I North Korean or South Korean?"

Is there any country that I can proudly call I am from?

But later, it doesn't matter at all. I'm just being me, be myself, that is the most important thing so..

I'm Park Yeonmi

Nowadays I am fighting for my dream, reconciling North and South into one Korean people

So I am going to tv shows and interviews telling my story.

I really try to show the people the true heart of North Korea

Not the Kim's propaganda or how crazy they are

but just the people

My people, our people

So, my speech title is "Nothing is Forever"

I believe that nothing in this world can last forever

Not even the North Korean regime, they might not look unchanged but the people are changing from the bottom

So, I can say the biggest change in North Korea is that the people no longer believe the Kim's as gods anymore

They know clearly why they are poor

Because outside media and information is setting them free from the brainwashing and dictatorship

So they want to be free, they want to escape

They want to live their lives as they wish, but they don't have enough power yet by themselves

But we all have that power to support and help the North Korean people

So everyday in China and elsewhere

Thousands of refugees are facing the daily terror of deportation

So please support organizations like LiNK, who's helping North Koreans and rescuing them from China

When I was crossing the Gobi Desert, scared of dying, I thought nobody cared

But you have listened to my story, you have cared, thank you