‘Modern Holocaust’: North Korean defector describes hellish life within the regime

A North Korean defector has opened up about the hellish life she and millions endured under the hermit state regime.

Yeonmi Park, who flew to the United States with her mother in 2007, described the lack of love and friendship in North Korean society, and the heartbreaking sights of watching people starve to death at the hands of the Supreme Leader.

Park said that no one had friends, that everyone was considered a “comrade” and the expression of their emotions was despised.

The only affection anyone showed was for the supreme leader, and she said that even her parents never told her they loved her.

Speaking to the New York Post, the now 26-year-old, who is a human rights activist, has described the current North Korean regime as a modern holocaust.

“What you need to know about North Korea is that it is not like other countries like Iran or Cuba.

“In those countries, you have some kind of understanding that they are abnormal, they are isolated and people are not safe.”

“But North Korea has been so completely purged from the rest of the world, it is literally a hermit kingdom. When I was growing up there, I didn’t know that I was isolated, I didn’t know that I was praying to a dictator.”

Park and his sister were taught that the late Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il and his son and the current leader Kim Jong-un were divine and could read people’s minds.

He explained that the propaganda and the stories scared citizens too much to think negatively in case they were punished.

School life was brutal, according to Park, who says students are forced into “criticism sessions” where they attack and find fault with their classmates.

He said it was designed to create division.

Approximately 40% of the population is hungry and facing food shortages, something that the regime often conceals.

Park said he grew up having to eat insects to survive. After watching her uncle and grandmother starve, she says the Kim family is to blame for the deaths of millions.

The 26-year-old said it was “normal” to see people die on the streets.

“You saw so many people dying. It was normal for us to see corpses in the street. It was normal for me. I never thought that was unusual.

“I have visited slums in Mumbai, I have visited slums in other countries, but nothing is like North Korea because of the North Korean famine, it is a systematic famine of a country that chose to starve us to death.

“North Korea spends billions of dollars to make this nuclear test system. If they spent only 20 percent of what they spent on making nuclear weapons, no one would have to starve in North Korea, but the regime decided to make us hungry. ” “

Park and his mother fled to China. Her mother was raped by human traffickers before both were sold to Chinese men for less than $ 300.

Park’s father was also smuggled across the border, but later died of cancer.

Later, Christian missionaries helped Park and his mother escape to Mongolia before finding refuge in South Korea, where they reunited with Park’s sister.

In 2014, he moved to New York and spoke out against Kim Jong-un.

As a consequence, many of his relatives soon disappeared.

“I don’t know if they have been executed or sent to prison camps, so I am still not free. Even after having gone through all of that to be free, I am not free for the dictators there. Very emotional for me.”