Park Yeon-mi

I was able to see the lights coming from China. If maybe I could go where the lights are I could find something to eat, that's why I escaped.

I surrendered all my privacy to write this book. It was so hard and so painful. I went through so much crazy stuff. But I wanted people to realize that North Koreans are just like them.

I know what it means to be a slave, both physically and emotionally.

I wanted to show North Korean people that they have hope, and they can be free someday, like myself.

I heard about desert, but I never seen them with my eyes. I just couldn't believe there was nothing, except sand and except the stars in the sky.

I didn't know it was even possible to sell humans. I thought people can only sell animals, chickens. But I didn't even know that kind of concept - human traffic - can be exist in the world. So I just couldn't process it when I heard it.

The year 2015 brought me so many further chances to spread the word about human rights violations in North Korea, from addressing the United Nations to publishing my autobiography.

When I was invited to return to the 2015 One Young World summit in Bangkok, I knew that I had to make it back. One Young World had given me a platform, and for me it was vitally important for new delegates to hear about North Korea.

I didn't know who Bob Geldof or Richard Branson were and I thought Dublin was part of England.

Back in 2014, at the One Young World Summit in Dublin, I shared my story of my escape from North Korea to China in 2007. I had no idea what was coming or what to expect.

I can't say if I enjoy the attention or not. It's really exhausting. But every speech and every interview is extremely important to me because it could be my last one.

The North Korean government are out to get me.

I'm extremely grateful I was born in North Korea. If that didn't happen, there's no way I could understand other people's pain.

I was determined that I was going to have a successful and normal life.

North Korea is a very Confucius country. We respect the elders, the hierarchy. It's not like America where anyone can step up and do things, we have our tradition.

Before Kim Jong Il died, it wasn't like one day Kim Jong Un took over. Kim Jong Il made sure his son was known to the North Korean people and it was clear that he was the next heir. He prepared him for at least three years beforehand.

Kim Il Sung prepared Kim Jong Il for decades to be his successor and made it very clear from the beginning, 'This is my son and he's going to lead the country' and that took more than 10 years - almost 20 years.

We can agree that Kim Yo Jong is not taking over North Korea and I don't think that is in her interest.

My mum was sold for $65 and I was sold for $260 - at the age of 13.

They said if you are in China you have to be sold, you have to get married. And something that still saddens me is that I actually didn't care, I was so hungry.

I have a dream to have a normal life, someday have a child, get older. But it is hard, it's a big commitment.

Risking your life is not an easy thing to do.

I didn't know people can be good. I didn't know people are designed to be good and help one another.

I do think sometimes, I wonder is it true that every life is equal in this world? Do we care about North Korean lives?

In restaurants, when people order food - and they have menus - I hate that. Just give me something to eat. Quantity matters, not quality.

I crossed the Gobi desert to be free and now I thought I live in a country where I can say what I believe and have my freedom to think. However, now I have to constantly censor my speech because in the name off a 'safe place.'

Kim Jong-un and the regime don't just oppress - they play with human lives.

Most North Korean people have never seen a map of the world. They don't even know that the Internet exists. They don't even have electricity.

I was born at the end of the 1993. The regime stopped giving food to the people. Three million people died from 1995 to 1998. It's one of the world's worst man-made famines in history.

North Korea publicly denounced me as an enemy of my people and punished all my relatives. They have this guilty by association policy and they go after three generations of your family or up to eight generations of your family.

I learnt about the universe. I learnt about human rights and human dignity - this was so new to me.

I don't think I will ever understand what freedom means, but I am enjoying learning.

Freedom meant for me to wear earrings, not freedom of speech.

I think my father would have become a millionaire if he had grown up in South Korea or the United States... Almost anywhere else, business would have been my father's vocation. But in North Korea, it was simply a means to survive.

I never used a translator, never thought that the journalists might not understand.

I do want to go home. That's my dream. North Korea is still my home.

I really had loving parents, and my father was the example of perseverance... he never gave up, and he taught me it's so easy to give up, but to fight is harder.

I had to look for food all the time. I had to catch dragonflies, grasshoppers, and that was the only source of protein for me.

In North Korea, when there is an alarm, it means that there is a war drill. It means that you need to run.

North Korea spends billions of dollars to make this nuke test system. If they would spend just 20 percent of what they spent on making nuclear weapons, nobody would have to die in North Korea from hunger but the regime chose to make us hungry.

I have visited slums in Mumbai, I have visited slums in other countries, but nothing is like North Korea because North Korean starvation, it's a systematic starvation by a country that chose to starve us.

What you need to know about North Korea is that it's not like other countries like Iran or Cuba. In those countries, you have some kind of understanding that they are abnormal, they are isolated and the people are not safe. But North Korea has been so completely purged from the rest of the world, it's literally a Hermit Kingdom.

North Korea was pretty insane. Like the first thing my mom taught me was don't even whisper, the birds and mice could hear me. She told me the most dangerous thing that I had in my body was my tongue.

I thought North Koreans were the only people who hated Americans, but turns out there are a lot of people hating this country in this country.

Going to Columbia, the first thing I learned was 'safe space.' Every problem, they explained us, is because of white men.

I mean I could not trust men again. I hated men. I hated humanity. How on earth can people sell each other?

Nothing is forever, and I believe that North Korea will change in my lifetime.

I just never learned to think critically.

I thought Kim Jong Il was a god who could read my mind. I thought his spirit never dies, and I never thought he was a normal human being.

If I keep silent, I am betraying my people.