Yeonmi Park: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom
EVENT DETAILS
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
6:00pm – 7:00pm / VIP Reception with the Speaker
7:00pm / General Admission
7:30pm / Program
Kelly Strayhorn Theater / 5941 Penn Ave
Presented by the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh
Join us on the evening of March 20th as we welcome Yeonmi Park: author, activist, and North Korean Defector.
General admission and VIP tickets (includes a reception with the author and reserved seating) are available.
A book signing will follow the event and books will be available for purchase.
About Yeonmi Park
Twenty-four-year-old human rights activist and North Korean defector Yeonmi Park is fast becoming a leading voice of oppressed people around the world. At the 2014 Oslo Freedom Forum and the One Young World Summit in Dublin, she became an international phenomenon, delivering passionate and deeply personal speeches about the brutality of the North Korean regime. Her speech from the One Young World Summit has been viewed over 80 million times.
Born in Hyesan, North Korea, Yeonmi grew up in a society devoted to the worship of Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il and hatred for enemies of his regime. It was normal for Park to see dead bodies as she walked to school and to be so hungry she ate wild plants.
In 2007, Yeonmi and her mother crossed a frozen river into China, hiding from Chinese authorities for two years before finally seeking refuge in South Korea. Yeonmi’s searing memoir about her escape, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom, was released in fall 2015.
Yeonmi has taken it upon herself to tell the story of millions, urging the world to recognize the oppressed people of Kim Jong-Un’s reign. She believes that change will come through young people like herself, whose exposure to capitalism and Western media is eroding the authority of the Kim dynasty.
Currently, a student at Columbia University, Yeonmi has published an op-ed about North Korea’s “Black Market Generation” in the Washington Post, and has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and the BBC, as well as in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. She serves on the board of directors of the Human Rights Foundation.
This event is brought to you by EY.
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TICKETS
This event is managed by the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. Questions and/or concerns should be directed to Anna Harrison at anna@worldpittsburgh.org
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About the World Affairs Council
The World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh’s mission is to provide a pathway for a more globally minded region, offering students and the community a learning space that covers key international issues. The Council is a member of the World Affairs Council of America (WACA), a network of more than 90 nonprofit, nonpartisan member Councils around the country.