The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape From North Korea

by Jihyun Park, Seh-Lynn Chai, Sarah Baldwin (Translator)

The harrowing story of a woman who escaped famine and terror in North Korea, not once but twice.

North Korea is an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded.

Jihyun Park is one of these rare survivors. Twice she left the land of the ‘socialist miracle’ to flee famine and dictatorship.

By the age of 29 she had already witnessed a lifetime of suffering. Family members had died of starvation; her brother was beaten nearly to death by soldiers. Even smiling and laughing was discouraged.

The first time she ran, she was forced abandon her father on his deathbed – crossing the border under a hail of bullets. In China she was sold to a farmer, with whom she had a son, before being denounced and forcibly returned to North Korea.

Six months later guards abandoned her, injured, outside a prison camp. She recovered and returned China to seek her son, now six, before attempting to navigate the long, hard road through the Gobi Desert and into Mongolia.

Clear-eyed and resolute, Jihyun’s extraordinary story reveals a Korea far removed from the talk of nuclear weapons and economic sanctions. She remains sanguine despite the hardship. Recalling life’s tiny pleasures even at her darkest moments, she manages to instill her tale with incredible grace and humanity.

Beautifully written with South Korean compatriot Seh-lynn Chai, this compelling book offers a stark lesson in determination, and ultimately in the importance of asylum.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, History, Asia, Autobiography, Audiobook

199 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Katie.dorny · Rating 3 out of 5]

A haunting and brilliant read - blows my mind the author joined the tories though.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant read, but I cannot make sense of the fact that the author, so conscious of her status as a refugee and so set on (rightly) highlighting the importance of asylum, is now a member of the Conservative Party: the very same party that is trying to criminalise her experience and make it near impossible for anyone to reach the UK in need of help. She joins the bizarre list of North Korean defectors who have since fallen prey of right-wing hysteria in the West: the author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang whose name I can’t remember (praising His Lord and Saviour G. W. Bush) and Yeonmi Park (besties with alt-right lunatic Jordan Peterson) being the other two.

[Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

For whatever reasons, I didn’t enjoy reading this autobiography as much as the other books by North Korean defectors. I guess reading about starving people & poor living conditions over & over again kinda wears on you. I think if I read this book before the other ones of defectors I might of enjoy this book more. I felt the suspense & thriller elements of the others were gone. However, I would still recommend this autobiography to anyone wanting to read about first hand account of a North Korean defector.

[fatherofdragons113 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It feels like it kind of ends abruptly, but still an incredible story and very humbling when you realize how deeply some people struggle to survive in this world.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book to educate myself with a first hand account of what North Korea is really like. I’m shocked.

Jihyun’s and her family made some difficult decisions and I don’t blame or judge anyone for making any of them. Living in a regime like that, being brainwashed, being faced with incarceration and death; who am I to judge what others have done under those conditions when I myself have never had to face such duress? They had to do what they had to in order to live.

On the back of the book, Daniel Tudor describes the book as “moving without being sentimental” and I believe that’s very accurate.

I admire Jihyun’s determination and her strength. I can’t imagine going through what she’s been through.

The first few chapters didn’t get me, but after chapter 3 I couldn’t put the book down and stayed up until 3am! It was well-written and fascinating book.

I can’t even villainize Jihyun Park for now being a conservative. She’s been through absolute hell at the hands of a communist dictatorship, can you blame her for not even wanting to hear the word socialism?

[Amerie]

The Amerie's Book Club selection for the month of February is THE HARD ROAD OUT by Jihyun Park and Seh-Lynn Chai!

Follow @AmeriesBookClub on IG, and watch the chat between me, Jihyun Park, and Seh-Lynn Chai on YouTube (youtube.com/AmerieOnYoutube) February 28!

THE HARD ROAD OUT is a harrowing read but also a hopeful one. From Jihyun Park’s recounting of her terrifying days in North Korea and her time as a trafficked human being in China, to Seh-Lynn’s exploration of her relationship to North Korea as a South Korean woman, this collaborative work is certainly momentous. It is not, however, solely important due to its first-hand accounting of life in North Korea, but rather to the idea Park and Chai pose: that the road to reunification rests not ultimately with the governments of North and South Korea, but in the hearts of the two nations’ peoples, and that perhaps therein lie the first steps.

Jihyun Park’s short film with Amnesty International @amnesty THE OTHER INTERVIEW: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/north-kore...
Seh-Lynn Chai’s website: https://www.sehlynn.com/en
📚
ABOUT JIHYUN PARK
Jihyun Park was born in Chongjin, North Korea, in 1968. She experienced acute poverty, famine, illness, and intimidation. She first escaped at the age of 29. After her second escape from North Korea, with the help of the UN, she was granted asylum seeker status in 2008 and moved to Bury, Greater Manchester, where she lives with her husband Kwang and three children. She has been outreach and project officer at the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea and is a human rights activist.

ABOUT SEH-LYNN CHAI
Seh-Lynn Chai lives with her family in London but still spends considerable time in Seoul, where her parents reside. A South Korean diplomat’s daughter, Seh-lynn was born and raised from an early age in Korea, France and West Africa. Her first career was at JPMorgan before she became a writer. Seh-lynn has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in French Literature from L'Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). She finished her PhD coursework at New York University before completing an MBA at Columbia Business School in 1994.

@AmeriesBookClub #AmeriesBookClub #TheHardRoadOut @seh_lynn #JihyunPark @harpercollins

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

O útekoch z najväčšieho väzenia, ktorým je Severná Kórea, som prečítala už viac kníh. A predsa ma ďalšia vždy vydesí a zničí… Autorka túto knihu napísala v spolupráci s juhokórejskou krajankou a je to veľmi dojímavá ukážka spolupráce dvoch rozdielne vychovávaných žien, ktoré sú spojené jazykom a hľadajú prieniky aj vo svojich životoch. Pak Čihjon vyrastá v tvrdej diktatúre a je absolútne podriadená vernosti strane a vládnucej rodine Kimov. Až s prichádzajúcou biedou a hladomorom jej oddanosť dostáva trhliny. Svojou autentickosťou a strohosťou je kniha skôr dokumetom, miestami veľmi tvrdá a drsná. Pozerať sa na všetky ťaživé situácie sa dá len z odstupu, fakty bez sentimentu, inak to človeka zomelie. Už samotný odchod z krajiny si vyžadoval neskutočnú odvahu, rovnakú aj pri prerozprávaní a písaní, keď to všetko musela znovu prežiť.
Keď niekto teraz velebí komunizmus a zabúda pritom, do akých krajností to v KĽDR zašlo, že aj my sme mali vo veľa veciach našliapnuté tým smerom (kontrola a udavačstvo, kult osobnosti, strana nado všetko, tresty smrti), oplieskala by som mu túto knihu o hlavu. Odporúčam, aj keď to nie ľahké čítanie, je potrebné hovoriť o diktatúre zas a znovu.

[kate]

A haunting, brave, fascinating and insightful memoir that will stay with me for a long time to come.

(not rating this as I always feel a bit uncomfortable rating a persons life story but this is a book I would highly recommend.)

[Zuzulivres · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Můj život v Severní Koreji“ nie je len memoár o úteku a prežití, ale aj o mostoch medzi svetmi, ktoré boli dlho nepreniknuteľné.
Najsilnejšie na mňa zapôsobilo práve tiché, no hlboké zblíženie dvoch žien – jednej zo Severu a druhej z Juhu – ktoré spája spoločná kultúrna minulosť a skúsenosť rozdelenia. Aj keď každá z nich vyrastala v inom svete, cez rozprávanie a počúvanie si navzájom podali ruku. Ich spolupráca je dôkazom, že porozumenie je možné aj medzi ľuďmi, ktorých celý život učili, že sú nepriatelia.
Je v tom veľká ľudskosť, pokora a nádej – že hranice v nás nie sú večné.

"Když začnu vyprávět, vy moje vyprávění dokončete. Pokud s něčím nebudete souhlasit, tak přívětivě a vyrovnaně počkejte, až skončím, a poté mi řekněte, že jsem v Severní Koreji nežila, takže celkem přirozeně dané věci nerozumím. Jak sme tu teď spolu, nedělíme se striktně na občany Severní a Jižní Koreje. Jsme prostě jen Korejci. Dvě korejské ženy. Sjednoducuje nás už jen samotné sdílení zármutku z rozdělení zeme."

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a North Korean memoir I’d say this one is fairly typical, but I’m bumping it up to four stars because I really appreciated the reflective chapters throughout that transcribed her conversations with the interviewer. Overall the writing is solid but not amazing, the takeaways are nothing new. And I was confused by the abrupt ending, we don’t actually get any information about Park’s escape South Korea, which apparently took two attempts and was very elaborate. Considering her commitment to human rights activism, I was really surprised that she didn’t want to highlight the human rights abuses that make it so difficult to escape China as a North Korean.
And then, right after emphasizing her passion for human rights and the stories of survivors and how she personally handed out masks during COVID, she briefly mentions that she joined the right-wing party in the UK because, quote, “Don’t speak to me of socialism!” I’m sorry, what? So now I’m left on the last page thinking that she has no idea how governments work. Oh no, I just talked myself into a three star…..but I’d still recommend it to someone wanting to know the typical experience of a North Korean woman who survived the 90s.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. As the author mentions, North Korea to me too is like a black box, I never really learned about its going ons so this book was definitely an eye opener. It was very captivating and interesting to read throughout, her whole life story and how drastically her point of views changed.

Chapter 11 (her letter to her dad) absolutely broke my heart. I cried a lot.

The only reason I give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and not ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is because sometimes the writing of the book just wasn’t rly it for me. For example… 90% of the book is written in Jihyun’s perspective but then all of a sudden for like 1 or 2 chapters is switched to the author’s perspective and it kinda gave me whiplash, it took me a while to understand who’s perspective it is.
Also I thought the ending was very abrupt, like the story is going, going, going, and then all of a sudden it ended and I was like 🤔 oh ok.

But overall amazing book.

[Nora Rawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating as a glimpse into life with North Korea, but suffers a bit from the joint narration, which is partly told by the translator/writer who worked with the book on its first publication in France. Her interruptions as to her own reluctance to work on the book don't come across as very flattering nor very necessary to include, and the book ends quite abruptly as well, holding it back from a higher level despite the interest of Park Jihyun's journey.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a few of these first-hand accounts of life in North Korea — and escaping from it. It’s always a good reminder that everyone’s story is different, and in this case the author lived a relatively privileged life in North Korea (and even that was full of paranoia and cruelty). And learning about her life in China, which should have been a relief, was its own horrendous experience of exploitation. All in all eye-opening and worth reading.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am ashamed that I judged the people of North Korea by clips I’d see of them lining up to glimpse their commander President, where they looked more like 15 year old girls trying to see Elvis Presley. Absolutely crazy, with tears and clutching their face in awe,etc.
Now I understand the truth of it.
This book was very well written. I felt like I was right there, nearly hyperventilating over the horrors these people go through.
If there was ever a time I nonchalantly looked at socialism as in any way acceptable, I would certainly regret it and vow to be a fighter against communism with everything in me!!!
I am so thankful to God to have been born in a free country.

[Casper Veen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Het leek in 1998 een gouden kans voor de toen 29-jarige Jihyun Park om niet alleen de brute dictatuur in Noord-Korea te ontvluchten, maar ook de destijds woedende hongersnood die aan meer dan een miljoen mensen het leven zou kosten. Een mensensmokkelaar beloofde haar en haar broer naar China te brengen, waar ze een baan kon krijgen en genoeg te eten was. Haar moeder, die eerder was gevlucht, was er al en wachtte op hen.

Alleen: er was geen baan. Park werd wel naar haar moeder gebracht, maar zij bleek haar voor 5.000 Chinese yuan te hebben verkocht aan een Chinese man op het platteland. Vanwege de eenkindpolitiek kent China een groot tekort aan vrouwen en het komt geregeld voor dat Noord-Koreaanse vrouwen als bruid of seksslavin aan mannen verkocht worden. Park kwam terecht bij een werkloze alcoholist die haar geregeld sloeg en een kind, Chul, bij haar verwekte. Uiteindelijk werd ze na vijf jaar gepakt en teruggestuurd naar Noord-Korea – zonder Chul – waar ze in een strafkamp belandde.

In Twee Koreanen, waarin Park haar verhaal doet met hulp van de Zuid-Koreaanse auteur Seh-Lynn Chai, rijgen de ongelofelijke en vreselijke gebeurtenissen in Noord-Korea en China, die een bijna bovenmenselijke veerkracht vergen, zich aaneen. De mensenrechtenschendingen in Noord-Korea zijn zo ernstig dat Amnesty International jaren geleden stelde dat „zij eigenlijk een categorie op zichzelf vormen”. Park blijven deze gruwelen niet bespaard: ze wordt zowel geestelijk als fysiek mishandeld en ze verliest na haar tijd in het strafkamp bijna één van haar benen aan gangreen door langdurige dwangarbeid.

Het boek biedt meer dan de gevolgen van de Noord-Koreaanse repressie door de ogen van één dapper individu. In Noord-Korea wonen 25 miljoen burgers die hoofdzakelijk bezig zijn met hun werk, een partner vinden en een gezin stichten – net zoals overal ter wereld. Tegelijkertijd wordt het land geregeerd door een dynastie die de meest waanzinnige regels en gebruiken loslaat op deze bevolking. De interessantste stukken in Twee Koreanen laten precies de spanning tussen deze twee realiteiten zien.

Zo valt op dat Parks familie verspreid over verschillende regio’s in het land leeft, terwijl burgers zelfs voor een reis naar een andere provincie een vergunning nodig hebben.

Dit blijkt geen toeval, zo legt een oom aan Park uit: „Hoe meer een familie verdeeld is, hoe minder ze verenigd is. De Staat wordt je nieuwe familie, die vervangt je familie.” Over die familie wordt overigens nog meer verteld, ondermeer de waanzinnige anekdote over Parks zusje die probeert te leren programmeren zonder computer, iets waar ik graag meer over had gelezen.

Een groot deel van Parks boek speelt zich af tijdens de hongersnoodjaren (1994-1998), in Noord-Korea de Zware Mars genoemd. Ze beschrijft op aangrijpende wijze hoe ze als basisschoollerares meemaakt dat kinderen uit haar klas ‘verdwijnen’ of zo zwak en uitgehongerd op komen dagen dat van onderwijs volgen geen sprake kan zijn. In Noord-Korea sterft echter niemand van de honger – op papier dan – en werd in de jaren negentig van ‘de ziekte’ gesproken. Wanneer Parks oom overlijdt tijdens de hongersnood zeggen de familieleden tegen buurtgenoten „dat hij op latere leeftijd de mazelen had gekregen – je stierf immers niet van honger in een socialistisch land.”

Het is bijzonder jammer dat de vertaling van het boek vaak niet lekker loopt, met veel anglicismen, tegenwoordige en verleden tijd door elkaar en krom lopende zinnen. Op de voorkant is zelfs vergeten het woord ‘and’ tussen de twee auteursnamen te vertalen naar ‘en’ – hoe dan? Wie dat door de vingers kan zien en ook de auteurs het wat afgeraffelde einde kan vergeven leest zo, in dit prachtig omschreven relaas, hoe een vrouw met zowel de verschrikkingen als de alledaagsheden in Noord-Korea omgaat – en hier uiteindelijk aan weet te ontsnappen. Waar verhalen over het privéleven van Kim Jong-un en zijn voorgangers altijd veel lezers weten te trekken, is het te hopen dat in de nabije toekomst minstens evenveel aandacht kan uitgaan naar schrijvers als Jihyun Park.

Deze recensie verscheen in NRC: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/07/23/...

[Lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could talk about this book and the emotions I felt while reading it for hours. It truly made me think deeply about what we deem important in our lives and gave me once again perspective on what actually matters. The horrors, fear, pain, ridicule and other turmoils North Koreans go through are unimaginable to us here outside. There was this added dimension of being a woman that felt so close and intimate to me and the relationship between these two women and how they came about writing this book is magical. It is the type of magic and understanding that I believe could have only happened between these two women. A masterpiece.

[Sayyee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books describes the real life of people in North Korea, how they grew up, how their everyday life looks like, their struggles and the hard decisions that comes along the way for survival.
A brilliant story but also heartbreaking, full of pain and suffering.
It was a little slow to read, and I didn’t like the way the authors switched perspective in some chapters, but I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading this book.

[Valeria · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Chinese the word for crisis consist of two characters: danger and opportunity.

[Yuezhong Zheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is also published at https://everytinythought.substack.com/

The Hard Road Out recounts one woman’s harrowing escape from North Korea, not once, but twice. This riveting memoir details Jihyun Park’s childhood growing up in North Korea, and her later humanly impossible escape from her country over several years. It provides us with a rare glimpse of what daily life was like in North Korea and an account from a survivor who made it to the other side.

Park’s childhood, although very different from the outside world, was overall a happy one: playing games, such as “kill the Americans“, with other kids, living with her loving grandmother in the countryside, and secretly devouring pork with her family from her mother’s pork-raising “side business“ masked by the effort to help feed the military. Her father was a factory worker, and her mother was a community caretaker while hustling under the table to provide more for the family. Despite her family’s seemingly stable roles, her grandfather’s earlier escape to South Korea brought her family bad songbun (social rank). As a result, both Park nor her sister could not go to the top universities in the country, and visits from the government were often.

Shortly after Park became an elementary school teacher in her hometown in the 1990s, the North Korean famine started and left millions dying on the streets, including many of her students. When people died from hunger then, the official death certificates always showed the cause of death as another disease, such as measles or tuberculosis, because “one does not die of hunger in a socialist country.“

The famine also depleted everything that Park’s family had. She finally made up her mind to escape with her sister’s family after her uncle’s death, leaving their father on his deathbed. Park’s arduous escape from North Korea took her several years, experiencing the most traumatizing events along the way, including slavery, rape, sexual assault, and family betrayal before she was finally able to claim asylum in the UK in 2008.

This book is co-written by two authors, Jihyun Park, to whom this book’s story belongs, and Seh-Lynn Chai, a South Korean author now living in London who typed up the story that Park told her. The bulk of the book is told in Park’s voice (although written by Chai), with the occasional voice switching back to Chai. Chai describes their initial encounter at a human rights event that sparked this collaborative book project and her perspectives on Park’s story as someone born and raised in South Korea. Chai’s narration, in my opinion, carries a subtle saviorism undertone. As if by writing Park’s story that was told to her, Chai becomes the person that gives Park a voice.

However, Chai’s voice only consists of a very small part of the book and does not discount this book’s strong narrative and its rare, gripping story. I hope you check it out when it comes out on January 31, 2023.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This review is also published at https://everytinythought.substack.com/

[Anabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

How does one, from a place of privilage and comfort, even begin to discuss the impact of this book? THE HARD ROAD OUT details the harrowing life of Jihyun Park, who grew up in North Korea during the 1970s and 80s. She and her family lived through the Great Famine during the 1990s, the death of Kim Jung-il, and the daily attrocities that come with living in a long-standing dictatorship.

Park, through translator Seh-lynn Chai, talks about growing up not always knowing where the next meal will come from, her mother's entreprenural spirit and how it both endangered her life and saved her family's, the utter devotion towards the regime slowly rotting away as her students began to starve, and the heartbreaking reality of being sold by your older sister into sexual slavery. Park's story is nothing short of heartbreaking, while also being an example of the resilience and overarching kindness of humanity.

While Park never goes into minute detail about her life story, often skipping large chunks of her life to the next big event, this story is not for anyone looking for a sensitized version of what is happening in North Korea. Additionally, interspersed throughout, is added commentary by Chai discussing her own experience in writing this book with Park and the attitudes towards Korean Unification.

From a purely editorial angle, I personally wish Chai's chapters were more distinguishingly marked as seperate from Park's story. It was often jarring to go from 1990s North Korea to modern day England without even a title to warn you. I also wish the ending was less abrupt-- I felt very invested in Park and her son's journey towards South Korea, only to find out what happened in the epilouge rather than the book itself.

All that said, THE HARD ROAD OUT is a must read.

[Claudia Carocha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the most important book I’ve read this year. This book recounts the powerful story about what it was like to grow up in North Korea and the brutality she faced after she escaped. It’s hard to imagine how can someone survive so much trauma in her life.

[Ultra Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm always very captivated when it comes to accounts from North Korea. This memoir was no different. At first, I didn't particularly enjoy the interweaving of the translator's South Korean story - on first glance it seemed to be so much less "harrowing", which made me feel like it didn't belong. However, I thought about it more, and the trauma of the Korean separation doesn't just affect the North. And with that, I came to appreciate the South Korean commentary and perspective, also because most often, that kind of thing seems to be suppressed.

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was completely enthralled in this book from start to finish! Jihyun's story really moved me and I admire her strength, perseverance, and compassion. It takes courage to share personal experiences of betrayal and trauma, and I believe this book would resonate with women of color who have faced their own challenges in life. I highly recommend it!

[Kezra Bridger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really really fascinating read. Jihyuns story was heart wrenching but showed how in the most dire situations there are flickers of hope. Whilst the ending felt a bit rushed, it was a impactful and powerful read, gripping me in the whole

[DaniPhantom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and powerful read about a woman’s life in North Korea. I’ve always been interested in the politics over there, watching docs I could find on the topic. I think this is only the second memoir I have read about someone from there, and it was informational, emotional and brief.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. A harrowing, unbelievable account of life in North Korea and the price of escaping. It is truly unbelievable and difficult to read at times.

[Beatriz · Rating 5 out of 5]

ojalá hubiese sido 500 páginas más largo

[Rachel Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Knowing very little about North Korea, I found this story fascinating and enjoyed the narrative between the South Korean author and the North Korean escapee. A large part of the story focused on Jihyun Park's childhood in North Korea building up to her first escape. Disappointingly for me, there was only a small section of the book written about her capture, and second escape. I would also have liked to hear more about how she came to function in the western world after growing up in North Korea - perhaps a sequel?

[John Smiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story of life inside of North Korea and one woman's successful escape from there.

This is the second book I've read about escape from North Korea---both were fascinating studies of life there.