In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Yeonmi Park
- Genre: Historical Asian Biographies, North Korean History
- Publish Date: 29 September 2015
- Size: 10 MB
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Price: Free
Prologue
On the cold, black night of March 31, 2007, my mother and I
scrambled down the steep, rocky bank of the frozen Yalu River
that divides North Korea and China. There were patrols above us
and below, and guard posts one hundred yards on either side of us manned by
soldiers ready to shoot anyone attempting to cross the border. We had no idea
what would come next, but we were desperate to get to China, where there
might be a chance to survive.
I was thirteen years old and weighed only sixty pounds. Just a week
earlier, I’d been in a hospital in my hometown of Hyesan along the Chinese
border, suffering from a severe intestinal infection that the doctors had
mistakenly diagnosed as appendicitis. I was still in terrible pain from the
incision, and was so weak I could barely walk.
The young North Korean smuggler who was guiding us across the border
insisted we had to go that night. He had paid some guards to look the other
way, but he couldn’t bribe all the soldiers in the area, so we had to be
extremely cautious. I followed him in the darkness, but I was so unsteady that
I had to scoot down the bank on my bottom, sending small avalanches of
rocks crashing ahead of me. He turned and whispered angrily for me to stop
making so much noise. But it was too late. We could see the silhouette of a
North Korean soldier climbing up from the riverbed. If this was one of the
bribed border guards, he didn’t seem to recognize us.
“Go back!” the soldier shouted. “Get out of here!”
Our guide scrambled down to meet him and we could hear them talking in
hushed voices. Our guide returned alone.
“Let’s go,” he said. “Hurry!”
It was early spring, and the weather was getting warmer, melting patches
of the frozen river. The place where we crossed was steep and narrow,
protected from the sun during the day so it was still solid enough to hold our
weight—we hoped. Our guide made a cell phone call to someone on the other
side, the Chinese side, and then whispered, “Run!”
The guide started running, but my feet would not move and I clung to my
mother. I was so scared that I was completely paralyzed. The guide ran back
for us, grabbed my hands, and dragged me across the ice. When we reached
solid ground, we started running and didn’t stop until we were out of sight of
the border guards.
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