The following version of the book was used to create this study guide: Park Yeonmi. In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom. Penguin Books, September 29, 2015. Kindle.

The memoir In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park, tells the story of Yeonmi’s escape from North Korea to the safety of South Korea where she became a voice for those still suffering human rights abuses in North Korea. Until she was 13-years-old, Yeonmi lived in North Korea, a country known for its dictatorship and abuse of its citizens. Because Yeonmi’s parents believed their daughters had no future in North Korea, they paid brokers to go to China. They were unaware that they had been sold into a human trafficking ring. Almost two years later, Yeonmi and her mother connected with a group of missionaries who arranged passage to South Korea.

Yeonmi tells her reader that what she remembers most about North Korea is being cold and hungry. Because her father, Jin Sik, had an illegal business smuggling products from China, her family’s life was easier than most. Their fortunes turned, however, when Jin Sik was arrested and sent to a hard labor prison. Jin Sik was released to seek medical care because he was ill. He could do no work to support his family. Fearing their daughters, Yeonmi and Eunmi, would starve to death, their parents began seeking information about escaping to China. Keum Sook, Jin Sik’s wife, was to go with Yeonmi and Eunmi while Jin Sik stayed behind. He feared if he left that his extended family would be punished.

On the day the women were to leave, Yeonmi woke with a high fever and required an operation. Eunmi was eager to leave and would not wait for her sister to be released from the hospital. Yeonmi and her mother were assured they would be able to find her once they arrived in China, but they did not. Only minutes after they arrived in China, the man who served as their broker asked to have sex with Yeonmi. Keum Sook would not allow her daughter to be raped and told the broker to rape her instead.

After the man was finished, Yeonmi and her mother learned they could either be sold as wives to Chinese men, or they would be sent back to North Korea. They agreed to be sold because they were so hungry and feared the punishment they would receive back in North Korea. Yeonmi was sold to Hongwei. When she finally threatened to kill herself to keep him from trying to have sex with her, he promised to buy back her mother, look for her sister, and bring her father to China if she would be his mistress. Hongwei kept his word. However, when Jin Sik arrived in China, he was so sick with colon cancer that he did not live long.

Nearly two years later, Yeonmi and Keum Sook were again in a desperate situation because the Chinese government had begun cracking down on illegal immigrants from North Korea. They were preparing for the summer Olympics in Beijing and did not want those undesirables in the area. Yeonmi and Keum Sook found jobs working adult chat rooms on the Internet. They rarely left the apartment where the business was located because they were afraid they would be arrested and returned to North Korea. While working at these jobs they met a woman who helped them contact a mission group that helped women escape to South Korea.

Yeonmi and Keum Sook were among a group that escaped from China to Mongolia through the Gobi Desert. They were instructed to go to the South Korean embassy where they would be allowed passage to South Korea. At the border, however, they were captured by Mongolian soldiers who threatened to take them back to China. The immigrants were allowed to stay only because they threatened to kill themselves if they were returned.

Yeonmi was distressed by the process through which she and her mother had to go through to become citizens of South Korea. Even after Yeonmi had earned her South Korean citizenship, she was sometimes banned from businesses because she had come from North Korea. She felt no one believed she could really succeed because she was so far behind in school and because of the things she had done in China to stay alive. When Yeonmi earned her high school GED, she felt she could succeed. When she was accepted to Dongguk University, she felt other people finally believed in her as well.

Yeonmi tried to forget what had happened to her in China and North Korea, and she did not tell anyone her background. However, she came to understand her purpose was to be a voice for the people who could not speak for themselves.