Můj život v Severní Koreji – Pak Čihjon (2023)

A young woman from North Korea, Pak Čihjon, recounts her life story, which is one of the rare testimonies about this most closed-off country in the world. The book, written with her South Korean compatriot Ch'oe Serin, captures the unique bond between two Korean women from two mortal enemies. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) resembles an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded. Pak Čihjon is one of these rare survivors. She managed to escape, and even did so twice. She decided to flee at the age of 29 after witnessing much suffering. Her memories depict the shocking conditions in what is arguably the harshest dictatorship in the world, realistically and without sentiment. ***** Ch'oe Serin is a South Korean writer and human rights activist. She studied literature at the Sorbonne in Paris and received her MBA from Columbia Business School. She lives in London and Seoul. ***** Pak Čihjon was born in 1968 in the North Korean city of Chongjin. After her second escape from North Korea, she was granted asylum seeker status with the help of the UN in 2008. Today, she lives with her husband Kwang and three children in Manchester, England. She works as a politician and human rights activist.