Quotes from Park Yeon-mi

I do want to go home. That's my dream. North Korea is still my home.

Why would North Korea people care if they have nukes or not? All they want is food. They want freedom.

I'm extremely grateful I was born in North Korea. If that didn't happen, there's no way I could understand other people's pain.

There's nothing I did wrong. I was just born in North Korea, and that was my crime.

There is a holocaust going on in my country, the world needs to acknowledge that and do something to help the people of North Korea.

I do think sometimes, I wonder is it true that every life is equal in this world? Do we care about North Korean lives?

Before Kim Jong Il died, it wasn't like one day Kim Jong Un took over. Kim Jong Il made sure his son was known to the North Korean people and it was clear that he was the next heir. He prepared him for at least three years beforehand.

The North Korean government are out to get me.

Most North Korean people have never seen a map of the world. They don't even know that the Internet exists. They don't even have electricity.

I had to be very unrealistic about my situation. If I was so realistic I would never have made it this far. So, you just sometimes have to be hopeful for no reason.

The media's censorship is unthinkable... If we don't stop, we are going to end up like North Koreans.

My concern is: How on earth is anything more urgent than the lives of people in North Korean concentration camps?

In North Korea, people who are actually oppressed don't even know they're oppressed.

The oppression is like nothing imaginable - I literally believed that Kim Jong-il could read my mind.

Because I have seen oppression, I know what it looks like.

What you need to know about North Korea is that it's 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 the people are not safe. But North Korea has been so completely purged from the rest of the world, it's literally a Hermit Kingdom.

I know what it means to be a slave, both physically and emotionally.

I did everything I can to be free and escaped.

South Koreans often don't think of North Korean defectors as Korean. While we have been granted citizenship, the locals don't consider us as South Korean citizens. We are often treated differently and viewed differently, even by people who care for us the most.

The year 2015 brought me so many further chances to spread the word about human rights violations in North Korea, from addressing the United Nations to publishing my autobiography.

I was able to see the lights coming from China. If maybe I could go where the lights are I could find something to eat, that's why I escaped.