Who Is North Korean Defector Yeonmi Park? The Activist's Bizzare Stories From The North Korean Regime Explained

Photos and videos of North Korean Defector Yeonmi Park relaying harrowing stories of her life under the North Korean (DPRK) regime have been going viral on social media, but many commentators are expressing skepticism over the details she has shared. Park escaped North Korea with her family at the age of 14 and lived in China and South Korea before moving to the US, where she made a career out of sharing her life stories.

However, with increased attention came increased cynicism, and with cynicism came memes. People began accusing Park of cooking up stories along the vein of classic In Soviet Russia… memes. Here's the lore behind all the memes featuring Yeonmi Park, the North Korean who has been characterized as a conservative commentator due to her ties to the conservative nonprofit organization Turning Point USA.

Who Is Yeonmi Park?

Yeonmi Park is a North Korean defector whose family escaped from North Korea to China in the year 2007. Her family settled in South Korea in 2009, before she finally moved to the United States in 2014. According to Park, her father operated a black-market smuggling business during the North Korean famine in the 1990s, primarily trading salt, sugar, and other spices. In 2014, Park first reached a global audience when she spoke at the One Young World Summit in Dublin, Ireland.

However, the speech was no Park's earliest brush with fame. In 2013, she was featured in a South Korean reality show alongside other North Korean defectors who characterised her family as "rich" after being shown photos of Park's mother wearing imported Japanese clothes and Chanel bags while still in the DPRK. Park herself described her mother as a "real life Paris Hilton."

How Did Yeonmi Park Become Famous?

Yeonmi Park grew her audience on social media by centering her content around raising awareness about life in North Korea. She began a YouTube channel titled, "Voice of North Korea by Yeonmi Park," where she shared videos with titled like "Daily Life of a North Korean," and "Kim Jong-Un brutally shoots an orchestra conductor 90 times in front of every artist in Pyongyang."

Park also went on conservative commentator Jordan Peterson and podcast celebrity Joe Rogan's podcasts, which may have been the start of her downfall. During both interviews, Park shared anecdotes and stories that seemed far too outlandish to hold true; she criticized Columbia University by saying "Even North Korea was not this nuts," and in one segment, she discussed seeing a boy "begging for food" while his intestines were hanging outside his body. Her outlandish claims raised eyebrows across the internet, and the memes began to trickle in.

What Are Some Memes Featuring Yeonmi Park?

Memes about Yeonmi Park often center around the supposed exaggerated nature of her stories, with people using screenshots from her interviews and creating similarly phrased fake anecdotes about different things. Some memes described cities like Chicago and Austin the way Park did, mimicking her cadence and phrases.

Other people followed the mantra of "the memes write themselves" by simply reposting Park's more bizarre statements, such as the time she asserted that people in North Korea primarily "eat plants" that "turn poisonous" come June 1st, leading to mass starvation. Another Park anecdote involves sharing a story about parents feeding their kids "mud" despite knowing it will hurt them.

I CANT BREATHE 😭😭😭😭😭😭she had to come up with something real quick pic.twitter.com/6uVnDX1QDY

— Dame Fagatha Christie, PhD (@FagathaGagatha) May 10, 2023

What Are Some Other Yeonmi Park Memes?

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For the full history of Yeonmi Park, be sure to check out our entry on her here for even more information.