A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea
SynopsisPlot
Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the country-wide famine escalated. By the time she was eleven years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun was in danger of the same. Finally, her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister, not knowing that they were embarking on a journey that would take them nine long years to complete. Before finally reaching South Korea and freedom, Eunsun and her family would live homeless, fall into the hands of Chinese human traffickers, survive a North Korean labor camp, and cross the deserts of Mongolia on foot.
Story
About this book
Eunsun Kim grew up in North Korea during the 1990s, a period when widespread famine killed hundreds of thousands of people across the country. As a young girl, she attended public executions on school outings and took part in daily self-criticism sessions, routines she accepted as normal. By the time she was eleven, her father and grandparents had starved to death, and she and her remaining family faced the same danger.
Her mother made the decision to flee with Eunsun and her older sister, beginning what would become a nine-year struggle to reach safety. The route did not follow a single path. The family lived without shelter, fell into the hands of human traffickers in China, endured time in a North Korean labor camp, and eventually crossed the Mongolian desert on foot before arriving in South Korea.
The memoir recounts these years in plain, specific terms, describing both the conditions inside North Korea and the obstacles that follow those who try to leave. Kim wrote the book after settling in the South, giving a detailed personal account of a system that remains largely closed to outside observation. The title refers to the approximate distance between her starting point and her final destination.
