Yeonmi Park

In this Korean name, the family name is Park.
The native form of this personal name is Park Yeon-mi. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Yeonmi Park
Park in 2023
Born (1993-10-04) October 4, 1993 (age 31)
Hyesan, Ryanggang Province, North Korea
CitizenshipUnited States (naturalized)
North Korea (formerly)
EducationColumbia University[1] (BA)
Occupations
  • Conservative Activist
  • Author
  • speaker
  • YouTuber
MovementConservatism
Spouse
Ezekiel
​
​
(m. 2017; div. 2020)​
Children1
RelativesEun-mi (sister)
Korean name
Hangul
박연미
Hanja
朴研美
Revised RomanizationBak Yeonmi
McCune–ReischauerPak Yŏnmi
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2017 – present
Subscribers1.15 million[2]
Total views122 million[2]
Last updated: October 27, 2024
Signature

Yeonmi Park (Korean: 박연미; born October 4, 1993) is North Korean defector, YouTuber, author, and American conservative activist, described as "one of the most famous North Korean defectors in the world".[3] She fled from North Korea to China in 2007 at age 13 before moving to South Korea, then to the United States. Park made her media debut in 2011 on the show Now On My Way to Meet You, where she was dubbed "Paris Hilton" due to her stories of her family's wealthy lifestyle.[3][4] She came to wider global attention after her speech at the 2014 One Young World Summit in Dublin, Ireland.[5][6] Park's memoir, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom, was published in 2015,[7] and as of 2023 has sold over 100,000 copies.[3] During the 2020s, she became a conservative political commentator in the American media through speeches, podcasts and the 2023 publication of her second book, While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America.[3]

The authenticity of Park's claims about life in North Korea – many of which have contradicted her earlier stories and those of both her mother and fellow defectors from North Korea – have been the subject of widespread skepticism. Political commentators, journalists and professors of Korean studies have criticized Park's accounts of life in North Korea for inconsistencies,[8][9][10] contradictory claims, and exaggerations.[11][12][1] Other North Korean defectors, including those from the same city as Park, have expressed concern that the tendency for "celebrity defectors" to exaggerate about life in North Korea will produce skepticism about their stories.[13][14] In 2014, The Diplomat published an investigation by journalist Mary Ann Jolley, who had previously worked with Park, documenting numerous inconsistencies in Park's memories and descriptions of life in Korea.[13] In July 2023, a Washington Post investigation found there was little truth to Park's claims about life in North Korea.[3] Park attributed the discrepancies to her imperfect memory and language skills,[3][13] and her autobiography's coauthor, Maryanne Vollers, said Park was the victim of a North Korean smear campaign.[15]

Park runs the YouTube channel "Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park",[16] which as of July 2023 has over one million subscribers.[3] Her political views have been called "American conservative",[3] and she has criticized the concepts of political correctness and "woke" culture in the U.S.,[3] drawing parallels between political correctness in the U.S. and North Korea.[3][17]

  1. ^ a b Homans, Charles (June 22, 2023). "A North Korean Dissident Defects to the American Right". The New York Times. Retrieved June 29, 2023. Shortly after graduating in 2020, Park was assaulted and robbed of her wallet while out walking with her son in Chicago. As she used her cellphone to record her assailant, a Black woman, she said another woman shouted at her for doing so and called her a racist. (The assailant was later arrested and pleaded guilty to unlawful restraint, according to court records.)
  2. ^ a b "About Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park". YouTube.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sommer, Will (July 16, 2023). "A North Korean defector captivated U.S. media. Some question her story". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 7, 2023. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Gupta, Priyanka. "Escaping North Korea: one refugee's story". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  6. ^ Abrams, A.B. (2023). Atrocity Fabrication and its Consequences. Atlanta, United States: Clarity Press. p. 314. ISBN 978-1-949762-70-9.
  7. ^ Park, Yeonmi; Vollers, Maryanne (September 29, 2015). In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN 978-0-698-40936-1. OCLC 921419691.
  8. ^ Power, John (January 21, 2015). "Celebrated Korean gulag defector changes story. Does that change the truth?". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  9. ^ Miller, Barbara (September 4, 2017). "North Korean defector stories find home in the South on reality TV show". ABC News.
  10. ^ Shuttleworth, Catherine (May 17, 2023). "Who is Yeonmi Park? The North Korean defector who thinks America is 'woke'". www.indy100.com. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  11. ^ "When North Koreans Go South, Some Go Professional". 38 North. June 25, 2015. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  12. ^ Power, John (October 29, 2014). "North Korea: Defectors and Their Skeptics". thediplomat.com. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  13. ^ a b c Jolley, Mary Ann (December 10, 2014). "The Strange Tale of Yeonmi Park". The Diplomat. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Murray2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Vollers, Maryanne (March 15, 2015). "The woman who faces the wrath of North Korea". The Guardian. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  16. ^ "Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park – YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  17. ^ Collman, Ashley (June 15, 2021). "A North Korean defector says going to Columbia University reminded her of the oppressive regime, saying she felt forced to 'think the way they want you to think'". Yahoo News. Retrieved August 7, 2021.