My opponent tonight escaped from North Korea
when she was just 13 years old.
She's now a human rights activist.
Yeonmi Park.
-Yeonmi, welcome. -(cheering and applause)
Yeonmi, all right,
last week, President Trump met with Kim Jong-un.
-Yes. -How did you think that went?
And I'm assuming swimmingly.
That was unbelievable.
I cannot imagine how can it go worse than that.
You thought it went... you thought it would...
uh, poorly?
Yeah. I mean,
seriously, like, how on earth did dic...
I mean, Kim Jong... I mean, Kim Jong-un
was a guy that was praised by the little... this free world.
The president of this United States of America went there,
said, "It's an honor to meet you."
Now, w... you know, you got to...
you got to start with something nice, and then, from there,
you give away promises about,
uh, where your army's going to be.
Uh, those are, like, the steps of diplomacy.
No. That's-that's...
In the name of diplomacy,
if that diplomacy ever worked,
I would not be here as a defector.
I would not be a human rights activist.
North Korea would not be this way for 70 years.
So, talk to me a little bit about that.
-You grew up in North Korea. -Mm. Mm-hmm.
Uh, in-in looking at, uh, this meeting
-between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, -Mm.
were you optimistic at all?
Do you feel a meeting like that
could potentially bring about peace?
Could that be the right step?
I initially thought
Trump was going to talk about human rights issue.
He-he was right.
He said on the way to Singapore in the press conference
that he was going to bring everything in.
But the last minute, he said no.
He only just took lots of photos with the dictator,
and he had a good time, as he said.
And he just gave so much,
loved him as a dictator.
He praise him, entire the summit,
and he just was so, like,
impressed by dictator the whole time.
-And he didn't do anything. -So you-you felt...
It's the legitimacy that you had an issue with
in-in that meeting.
Yeah, I mean, everything.
The entire summit itself, it was a reality show.
It was a show itself. It was not politics.
That's what Trump gives ya. He gives ya a good old show.
-Exactly. Yeah. -What-what would you say?
What-what would you tell Donald Trump?
What do you think Donald Trump didn't know?
From your perspective, walking into that meeting,
what's something you wish you could have told Donald Trump
to know walking into a meeting like that?
I think, for him,
that he does not really understand there are people,
25 million people, at this moment
that are waiting to be rescued,
to be saved by justice,
that people in North Korea gonna get killed
if they don't sit up when Kim Jong-un talks.
But that is not a something...
a subject that Trump should praise for,
should be envy to have in this country,
because he has no idea.
In North Korea, people have no freedom of speech,
and I don't think he really make that interview
-a full, like, reality. -Yeah.
He's still catching up.
-I think they-they gave him the books, -Right.
-but he's a slow reader. Um... -Mm-hmm. (chuckles): Yeah.
Or he's, uh-- what's the word-- uh, not a reader.
-Yeah. -Uh, uh, there are a lot of images,
a lot of pictures that came from that meeting.
As somebody who was in North Korea,
how do you expect those pictures to be used?
Like, what are... what are people in North Korea seeing?
How are they viewing that summit?
I think, actually, I was really surprised when the...
Trump showed that picture to the-the sky.
That's what exactly I learned,
when Kim Il-sung, our first dear leader died,
that it was raining.
The North Koreans said, "Even the sky's crying
for the death of our dear leader, the gods."
And that's what they say in North Korea.
That I believed the rest of the humanity
wanted to be like us.
That we had nothing to envy
because we had our dear leader.
And Trump proved that,
how much he loved Kim Jong-un,
how much he was impressed by how tough,
that Kim Jong-un killed his half brother
and how he just shot his, like, uncle
then made it into dust.
And that's how exactly he prove
that all humanity wants to come
to under the Kim Jong-un's leadership,
and I feel like we are under Kim Jong-un's power now,
even being in America.
-You do feel that here. Well, what... -Of course.
-Yeah? -Yeah, now.
We are all under Kim Jong-un.
(Klepper stammers)
I mean, do you see those connections, too?
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un?
Does it feel a pretty clear connection?
Do you... W-What do you see there?
I mean, Trump is our president.
Believe it or not, he is.
(chuckles) He's the leader of our country,
and he says he's going to make North Korea,
the regime, as a normal country.
He's going to invite this dictator
who's worse than Hitler, even,
and to going to make him as a normal leader.
-Mm-hmm. -Then what about us?
The dictator's not going to free these people.
The dictator's killing us.
He's using starvation as a tool to control the people.
What-what do people...
When you grew up in North Korea,
what's a day like in North Korea?
Hating American bastards.
-Hating you. -Oh!
That was my daily life.
So you're like a Democrat.
(laughter)
Yeah. Oh, my God. I guess so.
Yeah, entire day of my songs.
So it was like, "I'm gonna build a tank
and kill American bastards."
-So like rap music. -That was song that...
Yes, that was song that I sang.
So you-you are... On a day-to-day basis,
that's the things that you're being taught?
Those are the things that you're literally singing?
Yeah, and the plays that I did with my friends.
We were building a snowman,
and we put a big nose
because we heard Americans have big nose.
And we put the green eyes on top of it,
and we bring the hot water and put on the snowman.
What happens? It melts up,
and we say, "Yay! American bastards are gone."
That's a play we did.
-That's a hell of a Christmas. -(laughs) Yeah.
Yeah.
And you left at 13.
-Yes. -You mentioned that you, uh,
you saw an American movie, and it made you realize
something was wrong in your country.
-What was that movie?
-You saw
And what did you get from that?
Think, of course, Leo DiCaprio's handsome.
(laughter)
Oh, my forever love.
I think when I really watched
Why, first of all, someone dying for love,
because we don't have word for "love" in North Korea.
We only have word for "dear leader."
Like, we only have to say the word "love"
when we describe our feelings to the dear leader.
And my mom never told me she loved me.
And there's... I couldn't believe why
someone made a movie out of such a shameful story.
In North Korea, we don't know who Shakespeare is.
The love stories,
the human stories doesn't exist there.
It's only about how dear leader, like, accomplished everything,
how he can do miracles,
and how he defeated American bastards and freed us
and how he protects us today.
To be fair, most Americans don't know who Shakespeare is, either.
(laughs) Okay.
But then you defected. Tell me about defecting.
What was the straw that breaks the camel's back?
It was hunger. I was starving.
And it was not like I-I had Internet,
and look up on what to do with it.
It was... I literally...
Luckily, I was living in the northern part of North Korea,
and I could see the electricity lights coming from China.
I mean, if you see the North Korea on the satellite map,
it's the darkest place on Earth.
We have the Earth Day every day there.
-Good for the environment. -(laughter)
But, you know, that made me say like,
why China have electricity at nights?
And I thought if I go there, I might find something to eat.
And that's all I did to find a bowl of rice.
We defected North Korea.
You defect, you're a refugee looking for a place to live.
Yup.
-That is a situation America's dealing with right now. -Mm-hmm.
As a refugee who-who needed a home,
-who was fleeing a North Korean regime... -Yeah.
...a hostile regime, uh,
what do you hope the country you live in now can provide
for other refugees who might be seeking, uh,
seeking some sort of hospitality,
-or a hospitable environment? -Right.
I think the... When I went to South Korea,
uh, people ask me, even in America,
"Where are you from?" And I say, "North Korea."
They think, like, I say I'm from North Carolina.
They usually don't connect the North Korea to North Carolina.
And I say, "No, no, I'm not from North Carolina.
I'm from North Korea."
And they say, "What?! You're like me.
You look just like me."
I think that's what we forget.
Refugees are just like us.
We are just so unfortunate
that we are born in that country,
and we are being punished for our birth place.
And no one should be punished for their birth place.
It's not our crime to be born in North Korea.
(applause)
Yeonmi, tell me something I already know.
(sighs) Oh, my God.
(Yeonmi laughs, Klepper laughs, audience laughs)
Wow.
Or tell me something...
something I
That you should know?
Uh, I mean...
As-as a, uh... as a dumb American.
As a dumb American. Right.
As I've heard many people call me.
(laughter)
Who only knows what I see on television about North Korea
and what I-I hear from the Trump administration,
what is one thing to remember about the, uh...
the experiences that North Koreans are going through
day in and day out?
Freedom is not free. Don't take it for granted.
You might lose it like us,
and gonna look for a place to escape.
I thought, like, when Trump praised Kim Jong-un,
and saying what a great leader he is, like,
I'm like, "Where I'm gonna escape to now?"
I'm in a country where the dict...
president accept my dear leader who was...
who is killing my people, who is killing my relatives
right now because I'm speaking out.
I'm still not a free person.
The Kim Jong's still trying to kill me.
And that's why freedom is not free.
We have to fight for our freedom here
so we don't become like North Korea one day,
and we have to sit up when dictator speaks.
And that's what Trump wants--
that he wants us to... to sit up when he talks.
Well, guys, author of
A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom,