Eunhee Park: Surviving North Korea and reclaiming identity in the South

Content warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual violence. NK News Data Correspondent Anton Sokolin kicks off the podcast this week by discussing the long-running debate over the transfer of wartime operational control, or OPCON, from the U.S. to South Korea, following comments made by U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson. He also examines growing Russia-North Korea cooperation, including a new “friendship hospital” project near the Wonsan-Kalma resort, and what it may signal about the durability of their ties beyond the war in Ukraine. In the second half of this podcast, North Korean refugee and author Eunhee Park discusses her new memoir “The Courage To Die: A North Korean Woman's Escape and Rebirth in Freedom,” which recounts her childhood in Wonsan, years living in a North Korean orphanage and her eventual escape to South Korea by way of China. She also discusses the challenges of resettling in South Korea, including facing discrimination, loneliness and the burden of adapting to a free society, as well as how writing her memoir helped her process the trauma and reclaim her identity. Eunhee Park is a North Korean refugee, public speaker and author. Her work shares a clear, first-person account of childhood in the North, escape and rebuilding a life abroad.  About the podcast: The North Korea News Podcast is a weekly podcast hosted by Jacco Zwetsloot exclusively for NK News, covering all things DPRK — from news to extended interviews with leading experts and analysts in the field, along with insight from our very own journalists.