In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom

After their father’s arrest, Yeonmi and her sister reside with Min Sik, their uncle. He has two children of his own, and his salary is not enough to feed two more people. Yeonmi’s aunt, Min Hee, decides to take her away to Songnam-ri, a village deep in the countryside, to alleviate Min Sik’s financial burden. Yeonmi has to help the family by performing manual labor around the house, but in return she is given food to eat, and after being hungry for so long, filling her stomach is her primary concern.

In 2004, the family finds out Jin Sik Park has been sentenced in a secret trial to 10 years of labor in a felony-level prison camp. This news is devastating to Yeonmi’s family because people are not expected to survive in those gulags. Those who are sent there “are no longer considered a human being” (74). Yeonmi realizes she might never see her father again.

Yeonmi’s mother eventually requests she return to Kowon. She participates in their local inminban meetings, where she learns to perform public confessions and criticize others. Yeonmi and her sister eventually return to school and learn to find food in the forest. At 11 years old, Yeonmi is entrusted with some money to start a business. She sells persimmons she picked in her local jangmadang and learns that trading allowed her to usurp the government’s control.

Chapter 9 starts in 2005 when Yeonmi’s mother is briefly detained for relocating to Kowon. Her residency there is considered illegal by the government because her assigned district after marriage was Hyesan. Moving without the approval of the authorities is strictly forbidden.

In the fall of 2005, almost three years after his incarceration, Yeonmi’s father makes a surprise appearance in Kowon. His health deteriorated drastically, so he bribed a prison guard to let him visit his family on sick leave. Although they are reunited and the family moves back to Hyesan, they remain impoverished due to Jin Sik Park’s identity as a criminal. Even though he is on sick leave, his identification card was destroyed and his family name tarnished when he was sentenced to labor camp. If his health improves, he will be forced to return to the gulag; if his health remains poor, he cannot work to support his family. Yeonmi’s parents agree they should file for a divorce so that mother and daughters can legally move to Kowon if Jin Sik is imprisoned again.

After returning to Hyesan, Yeonmi notices the town has undergone some changes for the better. Legal and illegal trade with China have helped Hyesan prosper, and teenagers can secretly consume pirated media from outside North Korea. This behavior garners the younger crowd the nickname Jangmadang Generation, after the state-managed markets established to mitigate illegal trade. Yeonmi enters adolescence and begins to be curious about romance. The final third of the chapter details her brief romance with Chun Guen, a young man from an influential family with good songbun status who falls in love with her. Although he is faithful in his pursuit of her, she fears that they cannot have a relationship due to her family’s bad reputation.

Chapter 10 begins with the 2007 Lunar New Year celebration at uncle Park Jin’s house. Park describes the experience as unbearable because her father’s older brother no longer treated him as a family member after his imprisonment. Instead, Yeonmi’s father is ordered around like a servant. On her way home, Yeonmi begins to envy the people who live on the Chinese side of the Yalu river.

That same year, the family can no longer endure their poverty and begins to think of a way to escape North Korea. Although state propaganda continues to assure people the economic situation is getting better, Yeonmi’s parents are no longer fooled. The family begins to discreetly enquire about brokers who can help them escape to China.

Yeonmi one day wakes up feeling extremely ill and is sent to the hospital. Although medical care is supposed to be covered by the state, in reality the doctors are not paid enough by the government and expect patients to cover the difference. Yeonmi’s parents borrow money to fund surgery but do not have enough to pay for a nurse. Chun Guen visits Yeonmi during her convalescence and offers her presents to encourage her fast recovery. On March 25, Yeonmi’s sister decides she will not wait for her to recover and will travel to China on her own.

In Chapter 11, Eunmi is missing and has presumably escaped to China with a friend. When Yeonmi is released from the hospital, Chun Guen escorts her home and reveals that he knows about her family’s poor social status and wishes to marry her regardless. Yeonmi is touched but does not believe they can have a happy ending. Once home, she finds her parents crying at the loss of their eldest daughter. She discovers a note Eunmi left under her pillow that contains the address of a broker. The next day, Yeonmi and her mother follow the note to confront the broker about Eunmi’s whereabouts.

The woman who lives at the designated address denies knowing Eunmi. When, several days later, their search remains unfruitful, Yeonmi and her mother are convinced Eunmi has gone to China. They again visit the broker, who hints that they may find her on the other side of the border if they leave immediately. Yeonmi realizes she is desperate to escape North Korea and convinces her mother to cross the Yalu river that same night. The broker is eager to send them over but warns that they must lie about their age and hide their relationship as mother and daughter. Yeonmi, who is 13, is told to say she is 16; her mother, who is told to pretend to be her aunt, is also aged down. It does not occur to them to question the broker’s motive in helping them and in forcing them to lie.