North Korea: Escaping is Nearly Impossible

By Gabby Alfveby

A society where corpses lie in the streets, the concepts of love and friendship aren’t known, and a dictator is a “hero”; this is North Korea.

Western societies live luxurious lifestyles compared to North Korea. Americans and even their close South Korean neighbors take their freedom for granted. Women in the United States think their lives are full of inequality, but, imagine risking your entire life and leaving everything behind for food and freedom?

North Korean women enter the dangerous realm of sex trafficking to escape their horrific lives.

North Korean escapees don’t just have to embark on these long, treacherous journeys where survival isn’t guaranteed but also get taken advantage of by men.

Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector shared her sad story with the world after successfully escaping North Korean land.

In an NBC News interview Park described her time in North Korea as “living in hell.” 

Park was just thirteen years old when she left North Korea. When she entered China with her mother she was trafficked. Park watched her mother sacrifice her own body to stop a man from sexually assaulting her.

Park and her mother were sold into sexual slavery, with Park herself being purchased for $260, according to The Medium.

Park shared on Seth Rogen’s podcast that her virginity was taken by the sex trafficker that had owned her. She essentially was taken advantage of due to her vulnerability. Park was not only vulnerable but malnourished and weak.

Even in the twenty-first century the horrible North Korean regime continues to suppress their people and starve them to avoid an uprising or overthrowing of their toxic dictatorship.

Women continuously are trying to escape North Korea where they are enduring on these long expedition and entering the corrupt and evil sex trafficking business like Park had experienced.

It’s unfortunate that most people that escape successfully are young rather than old because of the high level of physical activity that is required to escape to China and then I was thinking and then I thought oh this is beautiful I wanna live here maybe work here then that happened like just right now eventually make it to South Korea.

The North Korean government is committing crimes of human rights. This can’t be tolerated any longer by the rest of the world. North Korea isn’t talked about enough and more awareness needs to be spread.

This can start with younger generations of South Korea and other western countries. North Korean people, especially women, deserve the same opportunities as South Korean women.