Readwithri’s Reviews > In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom > Status Update
Readwithri
is 33% done
One of the big problems in North Korea was a fertilizer shortage. When the economy collapsed in the 1990s, the Soviet Union stopped sending fertilizer to us and our own factories stopped producing it...
...the government came up with a campaign to fill the fertilizer gap with a local and renewable source: human and animal waste. Every worker
and schoolchild had a quota to fill.
— Feb 21, 2026 08:56PM
...the government came up with a campaign to fill the fertilizer gap with a local and renewable source: human and animal waste. Every worker
and schoolchild had a quota to fill.
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Readwithri
is 21% done
We ate rice three times a day and meat two or three times a month. We had money for medical emergencies, new shoes, and things like shampoo and toothpaste that were beyond the means of ordinary North Koreans. We still didn’t have a telephone, car, or motorbike, but our lives seemed very luxurious to our friends and neighbors.
— Feb 21, 2026 08:58PM
Readwithri
is 3% done
I know that it is possible to lose part of your humanity in order to survive. But I also know that the spark of human dignity is never completely extinguished, and that given the oxygen of freedom and the power of love, it can grow again.
This is my story of the choices I made in order to live.
— Feb 21, 2026 03:40PM
This is my story of the choices I made in order to live.
