Finding Each Other: Yeonmi Park's Long Search for Her Sister

When She arrived in Seoul, South Korea, she had much to celebrate. She and her mother had survived a dangerous trek through China after fleeing North Korea and had arrived in the capital to find freedom and safety. However, two things kept her and her mother from perfect happiness. First, her father had died on the journey and was buried somewhere in the Mongolian mountains; she and her mother were not even permitted to give him a proper funeral. Second, her sister was missing.

She had left North Korea ahead of her parents and sister. Once she arrived in Seoul, she began a campaign to find her and reunite the family. She appeared on television, begging anyone with information on her sister to contact her or for her sister to get in touch.

She had reason to be worried that she might never see her sister again. She already knew from personal experience how treacherous the journey was when leaving North Korea and traveling the long road through Mongolia and China to South Korea. Many never made it out alive, like her father. The trip was especially perilous for young girls who were often attacked or sold into sexual slavery.

After five years, she was beginning to lose hope. What she did not realize is that her sister had survived, but at a high cost. Her circumstances were so terrible that she still, to this day, finds them difficult to speak of.

Her employers in China exploited her because they knew she was from North Korea. They threatened to notify North Korean authorities and even send her back, a fate that would have resulted in certain torture and possible death. When she fled from her job, the restaurant owner for whom she worked had her tracked down by operatives. She stayed a step ahead, enrolling in a school that sent her to South Korea, where government agents finally realized that her mother and sister were in Seoul. After seven years of separation, the family was reunited.

When asked about their reunion, she responded, "After not seeing each other for seven years, what do you say? There are no words for that."

Today, the two sisters are inseparable. She says of her sister, "She has a huge wound in her heart. I do not want her to live in self-pity, so every day I tell her how blessed she is." While the girls do enjoy being with their mother and their new South Korean stepfather, who treats them very well, they still miss their own father.

She and her sister still live under threats from North Korea. Recently, detectives working with she encouraged her to change all of her personal information due to credible threats from the regime. However, she and her sister refuse to live in fear.

"I am satisfied. I have done this for my people in North Korea," says Yeonmi Park, a brave woman who stood up to the full power of North Korea.

For more information, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZEmDpkz0g4.