What is the main message of In Order to Live?

In Order to Live portrays the resilience and determination of one woman's escape from North Korea and her fight for freedom.

How long does it take to read In Order to Live?

The reading time for In Order to Live varies depending on the reader's speed. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of In Order to Live?

Yeonmi Park is the author of In Order to Live.

Biography & Memoir

In Order to Live Book Summary - In Order to Live Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

In Order to Live summary

Name: In Order to Live
Rating: 4.6 (38 reviews)
Author: Yeonmi Park

Yeonmi Park

A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom

4.6 (38 ratings)

19 mins

Brief summary

"In Order to Live" by Yeonmi Park is a memoir of the author's escape from North Korea, her harrowing journey across China and the Gobi Desert, and her ultimate freedom in South Korea. It is a powerful story of hope, perseverance, and resilience.

Topics

Gender & Sexuality Inspiration Women's Stories Memoirs Global Politics Korea

Table of Contents

In Order to Live
Summary of 6 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 6

What’s in it for me? Follow human rights activist and North Korean defector Yeonmi Park on her journey to freedom.

For many people, North Korea is a country synonymous with isolation and repression. When late dictator Kim Il Sung rose to power in the 1940s, the so-called Hermit Kingdom became shrouded in secrecy, its people cut off from the outside world. The state controls everything, and everyone is expected to follow what the regime tells them, no questions asked. So despite the unfair caste system and severe hunger plaguing the land, the people of North Korea have no choice but to put up with it all or else face serious consequences.

This was the life of Yeonmi Park and her family and this is the story she wants the world to know.

In this Blink to Yeonmi’s memoir, In Order to Live, we’ll take you through her heart-wrenching journey of escaping the North Korean regime, falling victim to the human trafficking network in China, and finally finding freedom in South Korea.

Trapped in the grim and oppressive Hermit Kingdom

From the moment they’re born, North Koreans are told that their country is the best in the world. Unfortunately, the reality of their lives paints a much different picture.

For one, North Korean society is divided into three primary songbun, or castes. The lower your songbun is, the harder it is to go to a good school and land a decent job. People have to resort to illegal activity just to put food on the table, and even then, many still live in poverty and hunger. In fact, it’s all too common to see malnourished bodies on the street, feasted upon by rats.

Yeonmi Park and her family were no strangers to this cruel reality. Being from a poor songbun, they didn’t live elite lives. Theirs were even a little harder than others because they lived in Hyesan, located near the border with China and one of the coldest parts of North Korea. The town would typically go for months without electricity and running water, making winters particularly brutal.

Luckily for Yeonmi and her older sister, Eunmi, their father, Park Jin Sik, was an ambitious man who longed for a good future. He built a trading business from scratch, smuggling illegal products from China into the North Korean interior. He got away with it by bribing the authorities, and this little venture of his provided his family with a much better life. They could eat kimchi and rice, buy fake designer clothes, and even afford a vacation to the country’s capital, Pyongyang, a privilege that was beyond reach for many in their hometown.

Apart from giving life to her father’s illegal trading business, Hyesan played another major role in Yeonmi’s life: it offered her a window to a world beyond North Korea’s borders. This was because Hyesan and China are only separated by the Yalu River, and every day, Yeonmi could see how different life was on the other side. In China, there was always electricity, lively festivities, and most notably of all, delicious food. These were almost unheard of in North Korea.

Thanks to Hyesan’s proximity to China, it was also easy to get exposed to foreign media. Yeonmi could watch Chinese TV channels and get her hands on pirated Hollywood movie tapes and South Korean soap operas, broadening her worldview even more.

Fleeing the clutches of North Korea

While the Park’s illegal trading business kept them afloat for some time, it wasn’t long before state-managed marketplaces called jangmadangs came into the picture. The competition put Yeonmi’s father out of business, and the family soon found themselves eating only a single meal a day. Desperate for a means to survive, Yeonmi’s dad came up with another business venture: smuggling precious metals.

Unfortunately, it was a much greater risk than smuggling Chinese products. For one, there was no easy way to bring the metals from Pyongyang to Hyesan. And two, smuggling metals was a serious crime that could lead to the death penalty.

The harsh reality of being a North Korean woman in China

Immediately after making it over the border, Yeonmi and her mother learned that life in China wouldn’t be easy after all. The broker who’d helped them was part of a chain of human traffickers, who made money from selling North Korean women as brides to Chinese men.

As women moved through this human trafficking system, they’d be sexually abused by each and every one of the brokers who handled them. Then, they’d be paired with cruel husbands with physical or mental health problems.

The joys and challenges as a new South Korean citizen

With the help of a Christian missionary team based in the Chinese city of Qingdao, Yeonmi, her mother, and their group of fellow North Korean defectors made it to Mongolia. It still took a few more weeks for the South Korean embassy to fly them to Seoul, but once they were on the plane, Yeonmi couldn’t help but smile. She’d finally get a real taste of freedom.

But first, the group of North Korean defectors had to spend a couple of weeks in the National Intelligence Center – a secured facility where the government holds all refugees to check if they really are defectors or possible spies.

Advocating for change

With Eunmi home and her mom finding a new and loving partner, Yeonmi was finally at peace with herself. This renewed her passion to continue what she’d started. She signed up for an intensive English tutoring program to improve her language skills, then went back to university to finish her degree.

But life decided to take her in a different direction, and that happened to be becoming a human rights advocate for her people. It all started with a simple speech at the Canadian Maple International School in the South Korean capital. Yeonmi’s English tutor encouraged her to give the speech to practice her English-speaking skills, but for her, it was so much more than that. It was her way of advocating for the millions of other North Koreans.

Final Summary

Yeonmi Park’s story opens the world to the cruel and inhumane living conditions North Koreans endure under the Kim dictatorship. She stands as an advocate not only for those who are trapped in the Hermit Kingdom but also for those who’ve escaped but have gone through the horrors of the human trafficking system in China. With her story, she hopes to be the voice of the oppressed and a catalyst for change.

Want to see all full key ideas from In Order to Live?

Key ideas in In Order to Live

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is In Order to Live about?

In Order to Live (2015) follows the survival story of Yeonmi Park, a North Korean woman who escaped from her home country. In this inspiring memoir, Yeonmi goes through her horrific journey from North Korea to China and finally to South Korea.

In Order to Live Review

In Order to Live (2015) is a gripping memoir by Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector who escaped from the clutches of a totalitarian regime. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Park's riveting personal story exposes the horrifying realities of life in North Korea and the incredible bravery required to break free.
With raw honesty and vulnerability, Park describes the physical and emotional hardships she endured, leaving readers deeply moved and inspired.
The book's insightful exploration into the complexities of human resilience and freedom will challenge readers to question their own values and beliefs.

Who should read In Order to Live?

Human rights activists
Those curious about North Korea
Anyone looking for an uplifting story

About the Author

Yeonmi Park was born in North Korea and fled the country in 2007. She now lives in the United States, where she continues to advocate for human rights.

Categories with In Order to Live

Biography & Memoir Politics Motivation & Inspiration

Book summaries like In Order to Live

Nothing to Envy

Barbara Demick

Real Lives in North Korea

The Price of Unconditional Goodness

5 min

4.2

Myanmar's Enemy Within

Francis Wade

Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim “Other”

One Man’s Escape from North Korea

The New Psychology of Success

12 Mindshifts to Breakthrough Limiting Beliefs and Become Who You Were Born to Be

14 min

4.0

The Coddling of the American Mind

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

The secrets of 40 millionaires' wealth, revealed

A Brief History of Humankind

Be Authentic, Boost Connections, and Make Bold Bets on Yourself

15 min

3.9

The Prince and the Pauper

Mark Twain

A Tale of Two Mirrored Fates

Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

27 min

4.3

The Social Contract

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

A cornerstone in modern political and social thought

21 min

4.5

Bedtime Biography: Me

Bedtime Biography: Madame Curie

The True Teachings of Bruce Lee

Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth

A Postpartum Guide to Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions, and Restoring Your Vitality

The Working Mom’s Guide To Style, Sanity, and Big Success After Baby

Explore God, Reason, and the Human Spirit in This Great Work

The Story of Muhammad

The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

18 min

4.5

The One Minute Manager

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Increase Productivity, Profits and your own Prosperity

10 min

4.1

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot

How one woman's cells changed scientific thinking forever.

25 min

4.3

Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Accounts Right Now

Jaron Lanier

Regain your autonomy online

Life as a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes

Austrian Investing in a Distorted World

The Secret History Behind the Game That Changed the World

One small step toward understanding the greatness of the universe

21 min

4.4

For Small Creatures Such as We

Sasha Sagan

Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World

23 min

4.1

Tools and Weapons

Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne

The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age

The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type

A History of the Islamic Republic

Find Peace in the Now

16 min

4.2

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Classic That Will Challenge Everything You Know

A Guide for Occupants

29 min

4.4

The Neuroscience of You

Chantel Prat

How Every Brain Is Different and How to Understand Yours

Schopenhauer's take on will and deliberation

Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life.

22 min

4.5

The Daily Stoic

Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman

366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living

33 min

4.7

The Menopause Manifesto

Jen Gunter

Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism

A Handbook for Living

Healing the Shame-Fueled Relationship Between What You Eat and How You Feel

Explore the Harsh Reality of American Slavery

6 min

Going Clear

Lawrence Wright

Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief

Simple Tools from Sixty Great Thinkers to Improve Your Life Today

A Proven Program to Safeguard Children Against Depression and Build Lifelong Resilience

16 min

4.4

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.