North Korea is an unimaginable country. We aren't free to sing, say, wear or think what we want.
In North Korea, people who are actually oppressed don't even know they're oppressed.
When I was in South Korea, the books that I read about Americans were actually Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. If this country actually oppresses people and enslaves the people, how are those two women billionaires?
I learnt about the universe. I learnt about human rights and human dignity - this was so new to me.
I crossed the Gobi desert to be free and now I thought I live in a country where I can say what I believe and have my freedom to think. However, now I have to constantly censor my speech because in the name off a 'safe place.'
Nothing is forever, and I believe that North Korea will change in my lifetime.
I'm extremely grateful I was born in North Korea. If that didn't happen, there's no way I could understand other people's pain.
People would ask me about my hobbies and what I liked. I had never been asked those questions because what I thought didn't matter. I didn't know what a hobby was. In North Korea we used 'we,' and to say - 'I like this,' - was the worst thing you could say.
The media's censorship is unthinkable... If we don't stop, we are going to end up like North Koreans.
I literally crossed through the middle of the Gobi Desert to be free. But what I did was nothing, so many people fought harder than me and didn't make it.
Freedom meant for me to wear earrings, not freedom of speech.
My favorite movies were 'Titanic,' 'James Bond' and 'Pretty Woman' - people smuggled in pirate copies from China.
I thought North Koreans were the only people who hated Americans, but turns out there are a lot of people hating this country in this country.
The year 2015 brought me so many further chances to spread the word about human rights violations in North Korea, from addressing the United Nations to publishing my autobiography.
I couldn't imagine that I'd ever see men as normal people and I could never trust them. I couldn't bear any human connection with men.
I am an ambitious person. In the West, being ambitious isn't a bad thing. You work hard and you have a purpose in life. But in North Korea, you can never be individualistic. You can never live for yourself. You have to live for the regime.
We don't have friends in North Korea. We only have comrades. There's no concept of friends.
I never asked to be a spokesperson or public figure. It just happened.
When I was invited to return to the 2015 One Young World summit in Bangkok, I knew that I had to make it back. One Young World had given me a platform, and for me it was vitally important for new delegates to hear about North Korea.
I don't think I will ever understand what freedom means, but I am enjoying learning.
My mum was sold for $65 and I was sold for $260 - at the age of 13.
In North Korea, it was actually an oppressive regime and that's why I escaped with my life.
I thought America was different, but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying.
South Koreans often don't think of North Korean defectors as Korean. While we have been granted citizenship, the locals don't consider us as South Korean citizens. We are often treated differently and viewed differently, even by people who care for us the most.
Everything in North Korea was about the leader, all the books, music and TV.
I came to South Korea with a feeling of deep kinship, but people here perceive me only as a talbukja, someone of a different nationality.
I don't think anyone should have power over me, or have the right to tell me what to say or how to think. That's not right. I want to be free.
North Korea cannot change because its people don't realize that there is an alternative to their suffering.
Reading 'Animal Farm' set me free from the dictatorship in my head. I could see all the tactics used by the regime to control us - they were all in that book.
That is what is happening in America. People see things, but still they've just completely lost the ability to think critically.
What you need to know about North Korea is that it's not like other countries like Iran or Cuba. In those countries, you have some kind of understanding that they are abnormal, they are isolated and the people are not safe. But North Korea has been so completely purged from the rest of the world, it's literally a Hermit Kingdom.
I'll live longer than Kim Jong-un - he's fatter than me. He doesn't like me.
In North Korea I literally believed that my Dear Leader was starving. He's the fattest guy - how can anyone believe that?
In North Korean culture, love is a shameful thing and nobody talked about it in public. The regime was not interested in human desires and love stories were banned.
All the foreign movies we saw about love affected me and my generation. Now we no longer want to die for the regime, we want to die for love.
The oppression is like nothing imaginable - I literally believed that Kim Jong-il could read my mind.
There were stereotypes: you are from the communist country so you are not a hard worker. You talk awkwardly and speak with an accent and you don't have any high education like us so you are basically stupid. And I am shorter than South Koreans - I was malnourished when I was young. It made me believe I was a loser.
I was a slave. I was sold in China in 2007 as a child at 13 years old.
Because I have seen oppression, I know what it looks like.
My detective just told me, 'Seriously, you are in danger and you have to change all your information.' But I said no because my name, Park Yeon-mi, is my legacy from my father, that's the only one he just left me. I'm very proud of my name so that's why if I die I'm ok.
When I saw my father's death it was not human, he was less better than an animal and I didn't want the end of my life to be like that.
I did everything I can to be free and escaped.
I never heard my father telling my mother that he loved her. And my mother never told me she loved me, either.
I was living in the border area with China, in Hyesan City. But after my father was imprisoned for informal trading, I escaped to China.
My concern is: How on earth is anything more urgent than the lives of people in North Korean concentration camps?
I thought, if I go to China, I might find food to eat. The only reason to escape was to find a bowl of rice. And I was trafficked and sold in China.
In North Korea, when there is an alarm, it means that there is a war drill. It means that you need to run.
In restaurants, when people order food - and they have menus - I hate that. Just give me something to eat. Quantity matters, not quality.
In North Korea, we never learned to think critically. There is no concept of individualism. The government treated us as less valuable than animals. You can't even stay overnight at someone's house without permission from the police. My mother warned me not to say - or even think - anything bad about our "dear leader," Kim Jong Il, because "even the birds and mice can hear you whisper."Collection: Mother