Eunhee Park is a North Korean defector, freedom fighter, and human rights activist. She was born in Wonsan, Gangwon Province. For almost two decades, she believed North Korea to be a world-class country. That changed when she first watched a South Korean drama that depicted people freely expressing their love and basic freedoms as human beings.

In her home country, she was beaten by police for wearing boot cut pants and had her long hair cut with scissors in the middle of the street.

She says: “My freedom as a woman is oppressed. How can you improve your life if you can’t express yourself, or make your own choices? The right to choose my clothes, the right to keep my long hair, and the right to move freely are all parts of my humanity. I aimed to fight this injustice to live my life on my own terms. So, at 17, I made the decision to leave North Korea, where a dictatorship had stifled my true self. After four years of preparation, I embarked on a journey of nearly 6,000 miles to South Korea through China, Laos and Thailand. To me, freedom and democracy mean everything in the world.”

As a public speaker and a freedom fighter at notable events like Tedx Talk, Asia Freedom Forum, and the Oslo Freedom Conference, Eunhee Park passionately shares her insights about the potential of North Korean defectors and the promising future of North Korea. She also emphasizes the value of democracy based on her story.

Eunhee Park has a unique approach to addressing North Korean human rights issues. She believes that the most effective way to dismantle the dictatorship is by ensuring that North Korean defectors, who risked their lives to escape oppression, thrive as survivors in a free democratic world. When they achieve economic independence, they become a direct conduit and source of economic aid to deliver the message of freedom to their North Korean families and acquaintances. Through these sustained efforts, we can hope to resolve the human rights crisis in North Korea and pave the way for a brighter future for its 25 million people.

She works as a project manager for a non-profit organization in South Korea dedicated to promoting economic independence in developing countries and supporting start-ups led by North Korean defectors. Her project aims to assist the 34,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea in successfully settling in a free nation and nurturing them to become leaders in the future unified Korea.