The Hard Road Out : One Woman's Escape from North Korea

The harrowing story of a woman who escaped famine and terror in North Korea, not once but twice. �_~A gripping, suspenseful and cathartic memoir that tells a story of pain and perseverance and makes the moral case for asylum.�_T David Lammy MP North Korea is an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded. Jihyun Park is one of these rare survivors. Twice she left the land of the �_~socialist miracle�_T to flee famine and dictatorship. By the age of 29 she had already witnessed a lifetime of suffering. Family members had died of starvation; her brother was beaten nearly to death by soldiers. Even smiling and laughing was discouraged. The first time she ran, she was forced abandon her father on his deathbed �_" crossing the border under a hail of bullets. In China she was sold to a farmer, with whom she had a son, before being denounced and forcibly returned to North Korea. Six months later guards abandoned her, injured, outside a prison camp. She recovered and returned China to seek her son, now six, before attempting to navigate the long, hard road through the Gobi Desert and into Mongolia. Clear-eyed and resolute, Jihyun�_Ts extraordinary story reveals a Korea far removed from the talk of nuclear weapons and economic sanctions. She remains sanguine despite the hardship. Recalling life�_Ts tiny pleasures even at her darkest moments, she manages to instill her tale with incredible grace and humanity. Beautifully written with South Korean compatriot Seh-lynn Chai, this compelling book offers a stark lesson in determination, and ultimately in the importance of asylum.