, South Korea
With over 2 million views of her speech at the 2014 Summit in Dublin, 21 year-old human rights activist and North Korean defector Yeonmi Park has fast become a voice and inspiration for activists throughout the world.
In 2002 Yeonmi’s father was charged with involvement in illegal business practices and imprisoned for 17 years in a forced labour camp. After her father bribed his way out of prison, the then 13 year-old Yeonmi and her family escaped North Korea, fleeing across the border to China. In the process, Yeonmi lost both her father and sister and witnessed the rape of her mother.
Today, Yeonmi lives in New York and is vocal about human rights abuses in her home country, advocating for the support of North Korean refugees fleeing the country and petitioning China to stop repatriation. Yeonmi’s account of her experience was published by Penguin Press in September 2015 and in the same month she spoke at a UN Human Rights session on North Korea. Yeonmi has been named one of the Top 100 Global Women by the BBC and profiled in numerous media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, The Independent and The Guardian. Yeonmi has written for the Washington Post and is a reporter for New Focus International, an organisation that spreads awareness of the terrifying acts of injustice happening in North Korea. She is heavily involved with Liberty in North Korea, the biggest international organisation advocating for human rights in the country.