The Price of Freedom: A Girl's Harrowing Escape From North Korea

Twenty-three-year-old Yeonmi Park can't remember the first time she saw death. She thinks it was probably as a toddler. It was the way of life in North Korea.

She grew up in a small town in the north-central part of North Korea, near the Chinese border. It was a time when the Soviet Union collapsed and cut off all aid to North Korea. Famine raged across her country, killing two and a half million people. She remembers seeing dead bodies and dead babies laying in the streets and floating down the river.

You had to steal or deal on the black market to survive. If you didn't, you'd be dead. Her father, a dealer on the black market, first started selling cigarettes and then food items. He eventually dealt with gold and silver and nickel, but his business wasn't booming. It barely kept enough food on the family's table. They were lucky to get one meal a day --- a bowl of rice. They were hungry, but better off than most.

That all changed when her father was caught and sent to prison --- and everything she thought she knew about her country and freedom came crashing down.

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

GLENN: What is it that we would sacrifice for freedom? What are the lies that we're living under that we're told that we believe, that even though our eyes tell us differently, we embrace? And what is it that you would be willing to sacrifice for freedom? We have not really, truly been asked that in the last few generations since World War II. Our children are most likely going to be asked that question. And millions of people are asking that question all over the -- all over the world.

So their question is a little different because many of them don't even know what the concept of freedom is. Let's take you to North Korea, right now.

(music)

GLENN: Our freedom here in America is a profound privilege. But we didn't have to suffer to attain it. There hasn't been any real pain. No effort. No struggle. It's just been given to us. And I want more. I want bigger. I want easier.

And I resent you for having more, easier. It's not about freedom anymore. It's about stuff.

I'll take you to the other side of the world, a 23-year-old woman named Yeon-mi Park. Yeon-mi Park.

She can't remember the first time that she saw death. She thinks it was probably as she was a toddler. But it was the way of life in North Korea. She grew up in a small town just north-central part of North Korea, near the Chinese border. And as she was growing up, the Soviet Union collapsed and had cut off all aid to North Korea. And famine raged across North Korea. It killed 2.5 million people. They starved to death.

Did you even know that? She remembers seeing dead bodies and dead babies, just laying in the streets of her town and floating down the river. You had to steal or deal on the black market. And if you didn't, you were dead.

Her father was a dealer on the black market. He started first with cigarettes and then food items. And then he eventually dealt with gold and silver and nickel. But his business wasn't booming. It barely kept enough food on the family's table. They were lucky to get one meal a day. And that was a bowl of rice. And they were hungry. But they were better off than most.

It was about the time that we were engaged in war in Afghanistan that her father's black market business caught up with him. And he was sentenced by the North Koreans to 17 years in prison. Without his income, she and her sister and her mother would scrounge for food. They mainly lived on grasshoppers. Her father was tortured in prison. He had barely enough food or water to stay alive. He was in prison for three years before he had found some way to bribe an official. And he got out of prison.

By then, he was starting to be ravaged by colon cancer, but there was nothing he could do about it. They now began to understand the North Korea that they lived in. She had grown up differently, believing in North Korea and the dear leader. Now, with dad coming home, they plotted, "How can we get out of here? How can we get to China?"

They made a plan, and the two girls and mom left. Went across the border. Her younger sister actually went a little bit earlier. Dad had lined it up with this North Korean guide and said -- basically, a coyote -- I can get you across the border. It's what happens all the time on our border.

Well, dad employed a coyote. And he took mom and the then 13-year-old sister across the border.

The guy turned out to be a part of human trafficking. And the trafficker, when they got across the border said, "I'm going to turn you in to Chinese authorities, unless I get to have sex with your 13-year-old daughter, Mom." And he started moving towards her. The mother threw herself in between the two and said, "I can -- I'm experienced. I can do anything." And mom took her place to save her daughter.

She was raped repeatedly in front of her daughter. Dad, meanwhile, several days go by. Dad hasn't heard anything. He was staying back in North Korea to cover the tracks so that the wife and two daughters had a chance to get away. He sneaks across the border to join them.

He finds them, gets them away from the trafficker, and they -- they actually survive hidden for several months. And dad's colon cancer gets the best of him, and he dies. But they can't bury him. They're afraid if they bury him, they're going to -- you know, they will alert the Chinese authorities. Going back to North Korea isn't an option. That was a death sentence.

So they scrounge up enough money to bribe a cream auditorium to cremate dad's body at 3 o'clock in the morning, and they sneak dad's ashes out. And they bury him in a hillside by sprinkling his ashes in the grass. Now with dad gone, human traffickers grabbed them again. Mom is sold for $65. Our heroine is sold to an older man for 300 because she's a young virgin. She lived as his mistress from 2002 to 2009.

That's when a group of Chinese and South Korean Christian missionaries who helped smuggle North Koreans into South Korea find her.

They take her across the Gobi Desert. Her, her sister, and her mom. She said it's -- it's -- on this cold overnight walk, with only the stars to guide them over the Mongolian border, that she had her first real thoughts of rage against their dear leader. She was only 15, but she had already lived a lifetime. Death and hunger had been the reality in her life. And she recalled the early days when school was still in session and she was in school and they used to sing about Kim Jong-un and how he worked so hard traveling across the country, giving on-the-job training to all of the laborers. And he would sleep in his car. And he would pass on these great secrets. And he would sometimes even take their shift because they were too tired. And he would only eat small meals of little rice balls so the people could eat.

She said they prayed, "Please, please, dear leader, take a good rest for us. We're all crying for you."

When she was nine, she saw her mom's -- her best friend's mother lined up with nine other mothers, shot for the crime of watching a DVD that had been lent to them by friends. And that's bootlegging.

They're trying to get across the Mongolian border. There's no going back to North Korea. All these women were carrying knives because of that. There's no going back.

And when the Mongolian guards stopped them at the border, they said they were going to turn them over to Chinese authorities. And they all put the knives up to their own necks. They didn't threaten the Mongolians. They said, "We'll kill ourselves rather than going back."

The Mongolian guards opened up the gate.

It was a few weeks later, just a couple of years ago, that she was actually smuggled or brought in from Mongolia, brought into South Korea, and brought there as a refugee. She said it would take the next few years to even begin to grasp the concept of freedom. She said, I wasn't dreaming of freedom when I escaped from North Korea. None of us even knew what freedom meant. What does that even mean, to be free?

All I knew was my family stayed behind, and if you did, you'd die from starvation, from disease, or from the inhumane conditions of a prison labor camp. And that the hunger had become unbearable. I was willing to risk my life for a bowl of rice.

What are we willing to risk our life for? What is it we have sold our life for? Certainly not a bowl of rice.

We've sold our life for something shiny. Something that I've always wanted. Something I can't live without. Something that my neighbors don't have.

Tonight, at 5 o'clock, I'm going to tell you the true story of North Korea. I'm going to tell you the true story of why this is so dangerous. The game that we're playing now. Where this goes, I don't know. But if it goes to war, it's not going to be another Iraq or Afghanistan. This is a globe-changing war. And when we come back, I'm going to tell you what a leading adviser to the president said on how the president makes decisions. And he meant it as a good thing.

I'll let you decide on whether it's a good thing, especially when we're dealing with something as difficult as North Korea.

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

  

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

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The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

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If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.