In Order To Live

• 276088996649

  2020-05-03
  I know that it is possible to lose part of your humanity in order to survive. But I also know that the spark of human dignity is never completely extinguished, and that given the oxygen of freedom and the power of love, it can grow again.This is my story of the choices I made in order to live.
• 276088996649

  2020-05-03
  North and South Koreans have the same ethnic backgrounds, and we speak the same language—except in the North there are no words for things like “shopping malls,”“liberty,” or even “love,” at least as the rest of the world knows it. The only true “love” we can express is worship for the Kims, a dynasty of dictators who have ruled North Korea for three generations.
• 276088996649

  2020-05-03
  We tell ourselves stories in order to live.—Joan Didion
• Louuu

  2017-02-24
  In North Korea, the only kind of "love" you can decribe is for the Leader. We had heard the " love" word used in different ways in smuggled TV showed and movies, but there was no way to apply it in daily life in North Korea -- not with your family, friends, husband, or wife. But in South Korea there were so many different ways of expressing love -- for your parents, friends, nature, God, animals, and, of coursr, your love.
• Louuu

  2017-01-07
  Maybe deep, deep inside me I knew something was wrong. But we North Koreans can be experts at lying, even to ourselves.
• Louuu

  2017-01-07
  It is how you can believe that North Korea is a socialist paradise, the best country in the world with the happiest people who have nothing to envy, while devouring movies and TV programs that snow ordinary people in enemy nations enjoying a level of prosperity that you could nor imagine in your dreams.
• 276088996649

  2020-05-04
  There was an endless list of crimes in North Korea. The government was obsessed with preventing corrupt ideas from penetrating our borders, so all foreign media were totally forbidden. Although many families owned televisions, radios, and VCR players, they were allowed to listen to or watch only state-generated news programs and propaganda films, which were incredibly boring. There was a huge demand for foreign movies and South Korean television shows, even though you never knew when the police might raid your house searching for smuggled media. First they would shut off the electricity (if power was on in the first place) so that the videocassette or DVD would be trapped in the machine when they came through the door. But people learned to get around this by owning two video players and q...
• Louuu

  2017-01-07
  In the free world, children dream about what they want to be when they grow up and how they can use their talents. When I was four and five years old, my only adult ambition was to buy as much bread as I liked and eat all of it. When you are always hungry, all you think about is food.
• Louuu

  2016-11-27
  Many years later, after she told me her story, I finally understood why when my mother sent me off to school she never said, "Have a good day," or even, "Watch out for strangers." What she always said was, "Take care of your mouth."
• Louuu

  2016-11-27
  Nother and South Koreans have the same ethnic backgrounds, and we speak the same language-- except in the North there are no words for things like "shopping malls","liberty" or even "love," at least as the rest of the world knows it.