Yeonmi Park did not know what freedom was while living in North Korea, but she definitely knew what hunger was. Life in North Korea was so difficult for the Park family that Yeonmi’s mother took her, a mere thirteen year-old child, on a journey that involved crossing a frozen river, three mountains and the daunting Gobi desert, just to reach freedom in South Korea. Park’s journey, as detailed in a Reason.com article, tells of a harrowing two-year jouney, filling with sexual abuse, fear and the constant threat of being arrested by the Chinese police. North Korea denies life is so harsh for its citizens, however, Park insists her stories of a bleak life in the country are true. She points to the fact that she and her mother would not have fled North Korea if they had the food that people in Western nations throw away each day. Park has said that on some nights, she only had a frozen potato to eat for dinner. Hungry and desperate, she and her mother fled, while her father, who was ill, feared that he would slow down their journey. The two years Yeonmi and her mother spent in China were a hellish time of rape and human trafficking, nevertheless, both reached the Mongolian border and were able to get a flight to South Korea. Finding freedom at last, Yeonmi Park is free to speak out against the North Korean government on South Korean television, NK News and social media. She doesn’t hold back her disdain for the human rights abuses she witnessed and the starvation that is so prevalent in her former home.