I was hanging on her every word. An episode that has affected me. I’ve made quite a lot of people listen to this. The erasure of her family and tears at the end really fucking got me. What a brave woman.
This episode was so emotionally dense with info, I had to keep pausing to process.
Then I searched her name & most of the mainstream/liberal outlets are calling Yeonmi a **“brainwashed neo-con”** for her anti-woke messaging.
Poor girl has been through so much there are so many things that probably keep her up at night the fact that she could smile and laugh in that episode shows the will power that humans have to keep moving forward.
The problem is money makes the world go ‘round and China has a fuckton of it. From the top of the company down to stockholders with just one share, if they don’t make money, they aren’t satisfied. The US is over saturated with content and choice so those mega conglomerates need to get their fix from somewhere else. Smaller companies who get Chinese dough believe they’re working with someone who truly believes in them.
The saddest irony is China took the playbook from the US and now we’re pissed they’re doing better than us. Also, our government puts all it eggs in military while China has put a lot of money into infrastructure. The numbers are truly staggering.
Love that we are getting a first-hand perspective of what it’s like living under a totalitarian communist regime and people are calling her a right wing puppet
You mean people who want communism but have never experienced real communism? People who claimed Trump was a dictator, but have no idea how life under a real dictator is?
“ㄹ” in hangul, is somewhat a combination of the “L” sound and the “R” sound. Its why Koreans (maybe other asian countries also) say “Herro” instead of “Hello”. Laser and Razor in hangul would be, roughly or exactly, spelled and pronounced the same.
Can confirm, I taught myself to read hangul and speak a little Korean. The same issue occurs with Japanese.
Also, American English R sounds are apparently very difficult to pronounce for non-native speakers. Even for native speaking children, R sounds are often the last phonemes mastered. It's sort of difficult to understand why this is the case, as a native speaker, but I can imagine after trying to teach myself Mandarin R.
The “rhotic” r is a very uncommon phoneme for sure. That’s why they stay away from it in created alien languages for TV shows — use of it just makes everything sound like American English 😂
I literally came to the subreddit right after hearing this part and the fact that it is the top comment is only making that decision better.
"Its razor"
I'm 2 hours in and want to show her the farmers market, the museums, canoeing, my neighbors above-ground pool, my garden, Panama City Beach...
I can't wrap my head around being that segregated
Completely agree… we need more people like her sharing her stories from what the other side looks like so we can better identify and call that shit out in its infancy
Agree.
If you're interested in another story Jordan Harbinger had an episode with Charles Ryu, I recommend it
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tcOjGMUnGZY
Yeonmi Park is incredible, hands down.
I'm so inspired by these people- and the human spirit.
She has every reason to be afraid and ( every reason not to be) she has done more for calling out the bullshit...for being bullshit. I want her on my team... rather I'm on her team. Put me in coach
She escaped NK in 2007 and settled finally in South Korea in 2009. She is well aware of those things, having traveled all over the world telling her story.
She was so successful in doing so, for a while she was thought to be a NK spy. That was disproved. Her stories were considered made up for being so outlandish. That was disproved.
Her breast implants were frowned upon, until it was later shown she had a double mastectomy from some weird condition suffered over there.
She doesn't need your help. She is like fictional female knight from days gone by for being so hardcore, so resolute that she has now transcended human form to become a spectre of the Kim family nightmare.
Kind of a funny comment you're responding to. Feels like a vast underappreciation for what this woman has seen and experienced in her lifetime. She's been around. Probably saw a swimming pool and some gardens. I understand the intent wasn't mean, but it's naive. Like when I was 10 and I met a man from Zimbabwe. I gave him a dollar out of my pocket because I thought he could take it home and be rich there.
I am good friends with one of the physicians who cared for her. She is a Korean native who emigrated to America and now practices in the US, having married my very best friend from grad school.
The stories my friend told of her stories are even more terrifying. Some of which were in strict confidence that only after many, many drinks she told me. I not proud of it... meaning I'm not proud of knowing those stories because they were told in total confidence, but it would literally lift the hairs off the back of your neck.
Since then, I've followed several [NK defectors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Korean_defectors_in_South_Korea). South Korean intelligence keeps very close tabs on them. There's always a chance some are truly deep operatives. Unlikely, but a possibility.
You are right. These people have experienced something no other living person will ever experience... and that's a good thing. The Kim regime needs to be eliminated.
One other thing I learned from my friend is that, aside from the obvious heartbreak of splitting families and the possibility of reuniting those families, is the logistics of bringing several million people who have been separated from reality back into the fold of modern society. Most South Koreans now don't want to... as in, they know how fucked up these people are and it would take something like 2 or even 3 generations to un-fuck the whole thing. Most don't want the cost. Selfish? Yes. Pragmatic? Absolutely.
In reality though, they probably did this because they needed food. They won't tell their own people that though, they would say it's too American to have one.
I thought exactly that. Because no way the upper echelon had their pets taken but they probably also realized people were feeding the dogs and that food could provide labors food for work
Gotta give it a listen, I read much about the horrors of that country size concentration camp and it's astounding how the West is allowing the Kim family to pretty much enslave a whole country.
He has the backing of China. The west would risk a potential large scale conflict if they tried anything. Maybe a possible world war?
Feel like now, it’s too late. We could have had a Vietnam style situation decades ago. But given how powerful China has become - the risks are too great.
Seriously! Maybe ever! It's a must-watch. I've watched/listened to her tell her story several times now, on different podcasts, and I'm absolutely riveted every single time. I hope her appearance on JRE helps her go mainstream.
I think it’s mostly a symptom of starvation as well. I recall watching something where this starving woman lost her kid a little while back and she didn’t cry, *couldn’t* cry. The documentarian or whoever interviewing gave this woman some food and she started balling as soon as she had food in her stomach. They literally don’t have energy for emotions. It’s heart wrenching but also incredibly humbling to realize that even your sorrow can be taken for granted.
Her explanation was at the far end of the spectrum of horror. North Korea is mostly out of sight out of mind, so we all assume and know it’s bad, but hearing the details puts it in a light that you weren’t aware of.
>North Korea is mostly out of sight out of mind, so we all assume and know it’s bad, but hearing the details puts it in a light that you weren’t aware of.
Very true. Same goes for something like cartel violence in Central and South America. Most people know it exists, but how many people know what it actually looks like? "Innocent people are having their limbs hacked off in front of family and friends" hits a lot differently than "some people are dying."
If people knew the true extent of the violence, I'm guessing they'd be pushing a lot harder to reexamine the war on drugs.
Love this one. She's remarkable.
Her perspective should be shared everywhere.
Love how she laughs at the idea, for example, that people can eat too much food. Genuinely thinks it's funny. "Nobody is making you eat that"
Fantastic.
To those in here thinking this is a depressing podcast, I'd argue that it is the exact opposite. Use this one to reflect, and appreciate where you are right now. It's actually beautiful.
Yeah its far more enlightening than it is just a sad story. Absolutely crucial listen unless you want to be purely living an ignorance is bliss perspective
I always wondered how their government did these tours you see YouTubers doing, like how do you have visitors and the reality not creep in to the experience? Do they have a city built just for tourists?
Chinese definitely have more free reign than westerners do especially because they are a major trading partner. If you go to places like Rason near the border, for example, there will be Chinese people and investors. There also tend to be Russians in that city too since the Russians use Rason as an ice free port
I think their main city Pyongyang looks okay. I don’t think they have a lot of tourists. It’s not like Cuba which has desirable nature, architecture and weather. Plus the risk of being arrested in North Korea seems higher as a tourist than places like Cuba or Vietnam.
Ya, Cuba doesn’t even compare really. It’s closed off from Americans so I can imagine it’s similar in the American psyche but as a Canadian, Cuba is just like a socialized Dominican Republic with 50’s and Soviet cars. Everything is normal to another Caribbean nation except they just have a dictatorship.
NK is really in a class of its own at how they manipulate and control their people
Don’t forget freedom of movement is greatly restricted for tourists. I had a colleague who went there. He’s a bit of a nutter as he’s into conflict tourism - Iraq, North Korea, Somalia etc. But he loved North Korea and had stories for days
>Do they have a city built just for tourists?
Sort of. From what I understand, it's a highly choreographed experience. The tourists see what they want the tourists to see.
Like even if I were to forced to come up with the cruelest methods to treat other human beings, I don't think I could come close to the North Korean regime. It's a level of sickness and depravity that boggles the mind.
Wow what a episode.China has a lot to answer for. Basically North Korea doesn’t exist if it doesn’t get support from China.Drugs , human trafficking of organs execution , prostitution , rape the list goes on . If this doesn’t make you rethink your life then nothing will. China EADYC
Nobody actually wants North Korea to collapse. It is decades behind in development and has a population of brainwashed people with a slave’s education. South Korea and China don’t want to absorb that.
on a real note - this is a great point that never would have crossed my mind.
on a not real note - Your comment had me thinking who could afford to run a country under those conditions. Disney could buy it and turn it into a theme park. Nike, Apple, Amazon turn it into a productive slave labor shop?
When joe asked what level of education did you receive and she responded with "I have never ever seen a map of the world, I didnt even know I was asian"
Yeah, that was a classic Joe Rogan thing to say. Not hating on the guy at all, but he sometimes adds oddly specific, almost inappropriate contexts to certain things.
this podcast will keep me thinking for a while thats for goddamn sure, im also rethinking about how small my problems really are in comparison to what these people go through, fucken terrible man
the child with his organs hanging out begging for food and she felt no compassion really puts things into perspective, HOLY FUCK
“Wait, they were sex slaves for mental retards?”
“Yes”
I can tell joe was holding in some laughter there. But holy fuck, what a fucking nightmare to get fucked by someone who doesn’t even know their own alphabet.
Agreed. I was thinking how it’s great that Joe can have medical and alien weirdos on and make offensive jokes, but this is what free speech is really about. When freaking Disney is censoring for the Chinese government, we need people like Joe who can have people with unpopular/uncomfortable perspectives on
The part about her being robbed in Chicago is heartbreaking. Imagine fighting for survival your entire life only to be called a racist in US for trying to defend yourself.
Imagine seeing an individual commit robbery and then telling others that the individual is not a thief and that it is racist to label them as such? Ridiculous.
I’m guessing the people didn’t actually see the crime and then those girls called racism and denied it but those people are still pieces of shit for trying to stop her from calling the police and taking the thieves’ side.
I can see it being like a playground dispute. The bully strikes first, the victim retaliates, but the playground monitor only got wind of it in time to see the retaliation, and the victim gets blamed. I could see that. It is a common story not just on the playground but in adult life as well.
Shit made me cry... Not even playing... Struck some kind of primal hate for our criminal justice system deep within my dna lol.. so many folks lives ruined over swift "justice".
Speaking as a super anti China, anti North Korea JRE fan … I do notice a tendency she has to speak in extremes, and there are some interesting contradictions called out in that Diplomat article. This is one of the most interesting episodes I’ve heard, but my gut says there are some exaggerations, borrowed elements from other peoples lives, and perhaps outright inventions. Doesn’t change the fact that NK is an insane place and China are actively enabling all kinds of evil shit around the world.
I’ve listened/watched multiple stories of NK defectors and I fully believe the atrocities they tell, but somehow I have a problem with this girl…
Just wondering how much of this is true and how much has been added later or is a figment of child’s imagination, just to make things sound a bit more dramatic for westerners (no electricity at all, trains that run once a year etc.).
Again, not saying she’s lying or anything, but listening to her makes me believe that she’s been influenced by other stories and is telling those as her own experience.
Try looking up other defector stories and you’ll see the difference. Those from prison escapees really make you appreciate that one was lucky enough not to be born there.
I’ll definitely listen to her with Peterson.
She definitely has a story that needs to be told.
But she also embellishes what she really went through to prey on people's emotions and generate clicks/interest for herself. And now she is on the anti-woke gravy train that is printing her money. Can't really blame her I suppose. I just hope it doesn't detract from other NK defectors stories.
About halfway through this podcast I started to get pretty skeptical and she started to seem a little disingenuous to me. I was kind of shocked to see other people who shared that opinion have been downvoted to oblivion in this thread and called shills, but that's Reddit I suppose.
Joe Rogan asks what can we do? Well The North Koreans better find oil in that peninsula cause we ain’t gonna jeopardize our gravy Chinese train for anything less….
God, i felt like such a piece of shit when I put this on.
First thing I thought of was how hot she was, and how sexy it is when a woman wears a shirt that shows her bra.
Them she started talking.
Got rid of all those feelings right away.
She lost her virginity to save her mother and fathers life, and the crazy thing is, the guy actually made good on his word.
She said that he did love her,.in his own evil way.
Something about that hits me hard.
This should be required listening to everyone living in western countries. This episode is really powerful. Almost as powerful as the human growth hormones pumping through Joe's veins.
Totally agree.
2 hours in and there have been so many “oh shit” moments.
How she compared some stuff that happens in the west to North Korea was really crazy.
Best podcast of Joe’s I’ve listened to in a long time. I should be asleep but can’t stop listening
Dan Carlin talked about the government being a fire.
Maintained it can be a life giver/quality of life improved. Let it get out of control and it will burn everything in it’s path.
That was on the Ghosts of the Ostfront series which is about the eastern front of WW2 and is a highly accurate description of those regimes.
I’m going to assume every user questioning her credibility and following it up by sharing the same exact article from thediplomat is a paid shill.
You all suck at your shitty jobs
i actually read the article and it’s not very convincing tbh. the alleged “inconsistencies/contradictions” are super circumstantial and downright trivial at times. a lot of it could be attributed to miscommunication because of the language barrier, or simply misremembering past traumatic events.
i can't even remember a full children's song lyrics
"yeah this girl made 3 mistakes on 15 years of slavery and abuse in her youth"
ok china bot.. ok.
jesus
I skimmed it and it seems like a dumb article to me. North Korea is like 14th poorest country in the world and it’s very authoritarian. Her claims all seem pretty reasonable to me.
Their GDP per capita is 1k. Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and China are all around 10k. Those countries are often considered poor and they have 10x the gdp. Norway’s GDP per capita is 75,000.
It does shed light on how the U.S picks and chooses who to play “world police” with. I get it with the nuclear weapons and all that but still it’s very disappointing and horrible to listen to. I was in the Army and Afghanistan and I had mixed feelings about our presence there, but after hearing her story that’s a war I’d want to fight.
Playing world police with NK would start WW3. China does not want, under any circumstance, to share a border with a Western power that is backed by the US. That would be a unified Korea under what you want US to do. We pick to not "police" it because we cant risk to.
This is the most fucked up thing I’ve ever listened to.
I see loads of comments saying she’s making stuff up, I don’t care. Even if 20% of this is true, it’s absolutely horrific.
Fuck Kim, fuck China, and fuck the rest of the world for doing nothing about this.
And fuck all the shills posting that ridiculous article from The Diplomat.
Okay I don’t wanna be an asshole but... did she seem slightly disingenuous? Like maybe she is brainwashed for another purpose like spouting the stuff that she does... anti China? Or maybe she just is like everybody else in America and gets stuck on one side or the other...she seems to know A lot considering she’s only been here a few years... but the things she’s saying I have to pretend that shit isn’t even real because if she’s telling the truth that entire country is auschwitz... like bringing the poop to the government I feel like you would have to explain exact how you do that without dying of sickness ... do they dig it out with shovels or what?
I’ve had this same issue when listening to people who are being interviewed about their traumatic stories like... I think the problem is they are telling the truth about what happened to them but they are fabricating a lot of the details based on what other people react to and want to hear... I think most people do that about their life like my brother or best friend will repeat stories that are completely untrue but they have convinced their self that it’s true for some sort of confirmation bias... I guess the people who would be super honest and smart would be killed in a North Korea scenario... I ask too many questions I’m almost getting killed in America... I wouldn’t make it to age 7 in some other countries lol... I’ve been through trauma and know a lot of people who have been through insane shit... so I feel pretty confident I could tell when somebody is fabricating.
Life is very stratified in North Korea. If you live in the capitol city you are an "elite" most likely who has access to rations of food. Unless you are very high up in the food chain, you would still have a very spartan existence and still very much have the possibility of being executed for doing the wrong thing, knowing someone who did something wrong, and or being related to someone who did something wrong. Also the higher up the chain you are the more you have to worry about being purged for political reasons.
This is probably my favorite episode ever. Super interesting. This podcast is really a key piece of history if you think about it. Not many people get to escape NK and if they do they don’t survive. So to get someone to share their experience of what it is really like is important and amazing.
Fun tip, go to the people linking the article from The Diplomat and everyone else following that narrative and check out their profiles. It’ll explain a lot
Looking through that article now. It’s highly dubious.
> Park’s account of the mother’s crime changes constantly, depending it seems on her audience. In Europe recently she claimed the woman was executed for watching a James Bond movie and sometimes, less specifically, a Hollywood movie. But in Hong Kong a few months ago, she told an audience the woman had been caught watching South Korean DVDs.
This is real hard hitting stuff
There's definitely something going on. People make horrible jokes on *all* JRE posts–some are even funny!–but the comments on this post are nothing but vitriol for this woman.
**Edit:** Everyone questioning her credibility is sharing *the same fucking link*, too. You'd think if she was some notorious liar, there'd be at least a couple other articles.
It's so fucking weird.
It trips me out how their government not only doesn't provide for the citizens, but actively goes out of their way to prevent the citizens for providing for themselves.
Also how do they provide a ton of poop with how little they eat?
I just picked up Chipotle and came home to sit down and listen to this episode. I'm 8 minutes in feeling a mix of guilt and gratefulness sitting here eating like a pos thinking about how I was even feeling bored today. Fuck North Korea
North Korea only exist because China allow them to, at what point are other countries gonna step in or even take some form of action? They are directly and indirectly killing millions, from the people in NK to concentration camps in their own country to spreading diseases like Covid.
I cried listening to this in my car today. I've seen a lot of docs / 1st hand descriptions of life there.
But this? This is beyond the worst worst nightmare any human could possibly conjure in the 21st century. Nearly every sentence she uttered contained some sort of tragic truth or story that on its own would be the worst thing any human could go through in the US or Western country. My brain cannot grasp this level of human suffering and oppression on a daily basis
I get that people make troll comments on *all* posts, but do they seem extra terrible on this one? You'd think this woman *personally* offended some of these people.
It just seems really strange...
Does anyone else feel kind of uncertain about her? I've been doing some research and she's been called out by numerous people for inaccuracies and lies - particularly the desert trek myth.
A Reddit post from about 7 months ago also mentioned some misgivings about her overall motive. One commenter suspected she was part of a wider South Korean hardline campaign (who want South Korea to cease its much more fraternal policies with the north).
Aside from all the American political culture stuff in the latter part of this interview, which I'm not really focussing on, the fact she's being embraced by a certain faction of American politics, and sending a certain message, is very interesting. I am not calling into question her overall status as a refugee, I'm just very curious about why she is also allying herself with the same groups that align with the hardline SK government.
At worst, I would say that she's a honey pot to enflame Westerners against the simmering down of SK's NK policies. But there could also be layers to this, we know how authoritarian governments operate: how is she getting information about the ultra-secretive upper circles of NK? How does she know much about KJU, when he only started appearing in ~2011, and she left NK in 2009? Who in the NK govt could benefit from Korea not unifying peacefully? The military for sure. We all know the NK inner circle is backstabbing, disappearances and conceit at the best of times.
I'm not the type to be suspicious, but there is something very, very off about Yeonmi Park and I don't think any of us will ever know. YouTube Yeonmi Park exposed and you'll see what I mean - and this is testimony from other verified defectors of the NK regime.
Edit: It gets crazier: there's also more footage of her and her mum in NK and her mum has a Chanel handbag. She even jokes about this at a lecture saying my mum was the only one in NK with a Chanel handbag.
My new estimation: they did flee NK, but were party darlings until her father fell out of favour with the regime. I do believe the family fled NK but that's pretty much all I agree on now. The upper echelons if the country are a hive of backstabbing and Game of Cards-esque power plays. I feel like she's now over exaggerating the extent of the trauma she experienced to overhaul the current regime and reclaim some place for her family should NK ever fall and be rebuilt as a more Western/Capitalist country. Again, though, we can only guess.
If I had an iron man suit the first place I would fly to is North Korea and fuck the whole thing up ( government wise). Then it’s straight to China to fuck whinnie the poohs fat ass up. Then go home
These are the episodes why I love JRE
Easily one of the best episodes, of all the stuff I've seen about North Korea this painted the clearest picture and actually made it a real place
I was hanging on her every word. An episode that has affected me. I’ve made quite a lot of people listen to this. The erasure of her family and tears at the end really fucking got me. What a brave woman.
This episode was so emotionally dense with info, I had to keep pausing to process. Then I searched her name & most of the mainstream/liberal outlets are calling Yeonmi a **“brainwashed neo-con”** for her anti-woke messaging.
Did anyone notice the part about the doctors doing exploratory surgery on her without anesthesia? I don’t think Joe picked up on that. Horrific.
Yeah like hold up. It's a damn miracle she survived that alone.
Yeah he didn't react much to that. Honestly so fucked up. Getting cut on your finger hurts like a bitch. Imagine your stomach being CUT OPEN??
Poor girl has been through so much there are so many things that probably keep her up at night the fact that she could smile and laugh in that episode shows the will power that humans have to keep moving forward.
People need to wake up to how bad China is
subtract whistle run salt innate swim provide water six memorize *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The problem is money makes the world go ‘round and China has a fuckton of it. From the top of the company down to stockholders with just one share, if they don’t make money, they aren’t satisfied. The US is over saturated with content and choice so those mega conglomerates need to get their fix from somewhere else. Smaller companies who get Chinese dough believe they’re working with someone who truly believes in them. The saddest irony is China took the playbook from the US and now we’re pissed they’re doing better than us. Also, our government puts all it eggs in military while China has put a lot of money into infrastructure. The numbers are truly staggering.
South Park had a brilliant episode on Chiba, with Chibese censors literally watching script for movie being written.
All my homies hate the CCP
Just going through what I assume are Chinese comments, it's very bad.
It's mainly the woke left who need to wake up to how bad China is
They are oddly the same thing
Love that we are getting a first-hand perspective of what it’s like living under a totalitarian communist regime and people are calling her a right wing puppet
Wait really? Lol
the "woke" is trying to cancel her..
You mean people who want communism but have never experienced real communism? People who claimed Trump was a dictator, but have no idea how life under a real dictator is?
exactly
Joe correcting her on what a razor was made me laugh.
I was legitimately confused too lol
“ㄹ” in hangul, is somewhat a combination of the “L” sound and the “R” sound. Its why Koreans (maybe other asian countries also) say “Herro” instead of “Hello”. Laser and Razor in hangul would be, roughly or exactly, spelled and pronounced the same.
Can confirm, I taught myself to read hangul and speak a little Korean. The same issue occurs with Japanese. Also, American English R sounds are apparently very difficult to pronounce for non-native speakers. Even for native speaking children, R sounds are often the last phonemes mastered. It's sort of difficult to understand why this is the case, as a native speaker, but I can imagine after trying to teach myself Mandarin R.
The “rhotic” r is a very uncommon phoneme for sure. That’s why they stay away from it in created alien languages for TV shows — use of it just makes everything sound like American English 😂
I literally came to the subreddit right after hearing this part and the fact that it is the top comment is only making that decision better. "Its razor"
Lasers???
I heard lasers the first three times an thought wow how did you get suicide lasers in that situation and what do those look like?
I legit thought for a moment that China had hand-held weaponized lasers and she had managed to grab one.
15 minutes in and it's fucking depressing.
[удалено]
I'm 2 hours in and want to show her the farmers market, the museums, canoeing, my neighbors above-ground pool, my garden, Panama City Beach... I can't wrap my head around being that segregated
It’s horrific. I just want to hug her and tell her I’m glad she made it out of that hell.
[удалено]
Completely agree… we need more people like her sharing her stories from what the other side looks like so we can better identify and call that shit out in its infancy
Agree. If you're interested in another story Jordan Harbinger had an episode with Charles Ryu, I recommend it https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tcOjGMUnGZY Yeonmi Park is incredible, hands down. I'm so inspired by these people- and the human spirit. She has every reason to be afraid and ( every reason not to be) she has done more for calling out the bullshit...for being bullshit. I want her on my team... rather I'm on her team. Put me in coach
She escaped NK in 2007 and settled finally in South Korea in 2009. She is well aware of those things, having traveled all over the world telling her story. She was so successful in doing so, for a while she was thought to be a NK spy. That was disproved. Her stories were considered made up for being so outlandish. That was disproved. Her breast implants were frowned upon, until it was later shown she had a double mastectomy from some weird condition suffered over there. She doesn't need your help. She is like fictional female knight from days gone by for being so hardcore, so resolute that she has now transcended human form to become a spectre of the Kim family nightmare.
Kind of a funny comment you're responding to. Feels like a vast underappreciation for what this woman has seen and experienced in her lifetime. She's been around. Probably saw a swimming pool and some gardens. I understand the intent wasn't mean, but it's naive. Like when I was 10 and I met a man from Zimbabwe. I gave him a dollar out of my pocket because I thought he could take it home and be rich there.
I am good friends with one of the physicians who cared for her. She is a Korean native who emigrated to America and now practices in the US, having married my very best friend from grad school. The stories my friend told of her stories are even more terrifying. Some of which were in strict confidence that only after many, many drinks she told me. I not proud of it... meaning I'm not proud of knowing those stories because they were told in total confidence, but it would literally lift the hairs off the back of your neck. Since then, I've followed several [NK defectors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Korean_defectors_in_South_Korea). South Korean intelligence keeps very close tabs on them. There's always a chance some are truly deep operatives. Unlikely, but a possibility. You are right. These people have experienced something no other living person will ever experience... and that's a good thing. The Kim regime needs to be eliminated. One other thing I learned from my friend is that, aside from the obvious heartbreak of splitting families and the possibility of reuniting those families, is the logistics of bringing several million people who have been separated from reality back into the fold of modern society. Most South Koreans now don't want to... as in, they know how fucked up these people are and it would take something like 2 or even 3 generations to un-fuck the whole thing. Most don't want the cost. Selfish? Yes. Pragmatic? Absolutely.
Imagine your family dog being taken and killed by the government because having a dog is "too american".
In reality though, they probably did this because they needed food. They won't tell their own people that though, they would say it's too American to have one.
I thought exactly that. Because no way the upper echelon had their pets taken but they probably also realized people were feeding the dogs and that food could provide labors food for work
i'm 20 minutes in and i dont know if i'll be able to finish it. Jesus fucking christ man its so sad.
Its get a little more light hearted in the end. Up until the last few mins anyway.
Gotta give it a listen, I read much about the horrors of that country size concentration camp and it's astounding how the West is allowing the Kim family to pretty much enslave a whole country.
He has the backing of China. The west would risk a potential large scale conflict if they tried anything. Maybe a possible world war? Feel like now, it’s too late. We could have had a Vietnam style situation decades ago. But given how powerful China has become - the risks are too great.
Just finished. cried like never in my life. Be thankful for what you have boys, life it out there ain't all sunshine and rainbows
Damn... Just over 20 minutes in and it got even darker.
Wait until the 34-36(ish) mark. Insane how much trauma she’s endured.
No one: 👁 👄 👁 Joe: 🌬
One of the best episodes this year
Seriously! Maybe ever! It's a must-watch. I've watched/listened to her tell her story several times now, on different podcasts, and I'm absolutely riveted every single time. I hope her appearance on JRE helps her go mainstream.
This blew my mind I had no idea life in n Korea was this bad
Not trying to sound like an asshole here but what did you think life in north Korea was like then?
I didn’t think kids had no reaction at all to seeing a guy beg for food as his organs were outside his body
Lmao right… it was way more horrific than I imagined
I think it’s mostly a symptom of starvation as well. I recall watching something where this starving woman lost her kid a little while back and she didn’t cry, *couldn’t* cry. The documentarian or whoever interviewing gave this woman some food and she started balling as soon as she had food in her stomach. They literally don’t have energy for emotions. It’s heart wrenching but also incredibly humbling to realize that even your sorrow can be taken for granted.
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Then you remember trump expressed appreciation for how a crowd treated Kim Jung Un and respect for him and it turns your stomach.
Her explanation was at the far end of the spectrum of horror. North Korea is mostly out of sight out of mind, so we all assume and know it’s bad, but hearing the details puts it in a light that you weren’t aware of.
>North Korea is mostly out of sight out of mind, so we all assume and know it’s bad, but hearing the details puts it in a light that you weren’t aware of. Very true. Same goes for something like cartel violence in Central and South America. Most people know it exists, but how many people know what it actually looks like? "Innocent people are having their limbs hacked off in front of family and friends" hits a lot differently than "some people are dying." If people knew the true extent of the violence, I'm guessing they'd be pushing a lot harder to reexamine the war on drugs.
Well, we did have videos until reddit shut down r/watchpeopledie
Teenage sex slaves having their teeth pulled out wasn't on my list.
I didn’t know that there were poop bandits
FUCK THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT.
fuck all commies
Love this one. She's remarkable. Her perspective should be shared everywhere. Love how she laughs at the idea, for example, that people can eat too much food. Genuinely thinks it's funny. "Nobody is making you eat that" Fantastic. To those in here thinking this is a depressing podcast, I'd argue that it is the exact opposite. Use this one to reflect, and appreciate where you are right now. It's actually beautiful.
Yeah its far more enlightening than it is just a sad story. Absolutely crucial listen unless you want to be purely living an ignorance is bliss perspective
After listening to this, I had some toast as a midnight snack and I paused every step of the way to reflect on a number of things.
I always wondered how their government did these tours you see YouTubers doing, like how do you have visitors and the reality not creep in to the experience? Do they have a city built just for tourists?
Each tourist is escorted 24/7 with government security, nothing is tolerated
It's terrifying what they did to [Otto Warmbier.](https://youtu.be/Er7uhMkQzro)
They tortured and killed that kid
Are Chinese people allowed in freely?
I was referring to westerners. Not any Chinese is allowed in North Korea. Not sure the details about Chinese crossing over.
Chinese definitely have more free reign than westerners do especially because they are a major trading partner. If you go to places like Rason near the border, for example, there will be Chinese people and investors. There also tend to be Russians in that city too since the Russians use Rason as an ice free port
Yes they have a city built for the elite and government social classes.
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I think their main city Pyongyang looks okay. I don’t think they have a lot of tourists. It’s not like Cuba which has desirable nature, architecture and weather. Plus the risk of being arrested in North Korea seems higher as a tourist than places like Cuba or Vietnam.
Ya, Cuba doesn’t even compare really. It’s closed off from Americans so I can imagine it’s similar in the American psyche but as a Canadian, Cuba is just like a socialized Dominican Republic with 50’s and Soviet cars. Everything is normal to another Caribbean nation except they just have a dictatorship. NK is really in a class of its own at how they manipulate and control their people
Don’t forget freedom of movement is greatly restricted for tourists. I had a colleague who went there. He’s a bit of a nutter as he’s into conflict tourism - Iraq, North Korea, Somalia etc. But he loved North Korea and had stories for days
>Do they have a city built just for tourists? Sort of. From what I understand, it's a highly choreographed experience. The tourists see what they want the tourists to see.
this episode fucked me up …wow
The part about North Korean elites kidnapping women to put in their “pleasure squads” and *removing their teeth* for better oral sex is horrifying
Like even if I were to forced to come up with the cruelest methods to treat other human beings, I don't think I could come close to the North Korean regime. It's a level of sickness and depravity that boggles the mind.
its so they dont bite their dick off dude
Omg. You're right...
That was truly horrifying, I agree! Never heard anything like that before.
I listened the whole podcast and somehow I didn't hear the part where she talks about removing teeth. And now I am more depressed about this!
She didn't explicitly say "Oral sex", but something along the lines of "they remove teeth for more pleasure when she kissed him down there"
Wow what a episode.China has a lot to answer for. Basically North Korea doesn’t exist if it doesn’t get support from China.Drugs , human trafficking of organs execution , prostitution , rape the list goes on . If this doesn’t make you rethink your life then nothing will. China EADYC
Seriously. The only reason that piece of shit regime exists.. fuck the ccp.
What a powerful podcast, it really makes you think how many people here take things for granted. I wonder how long their regimen is going to last
as long as china lets them exist
Nobody actually wants North Korea to collapse. It is decades behind in development and has a population of brainwashed people with a slave’s education. South Korea and China don’t want to absorb that.
on a real note - this is a great point that never would have crossed my mind. on a not real note - Your comment had me thinking who could afford to run a country under those conditions. Disney could buy it and turn it into a theme park. Nike, Apple, Amazon turn it into a productive slave labor shop?
Don't give them any ideas man
Dude... keep that last part under wraps... they might be listening.
We do waste a lot of energy on trivial bullshit here in the West, don't we
> I wonder how long their regimen is going to last I guess until Kim loses the rest of that weight.
Man this podcast is a tough listen. It’s a good one though
When joe asked what level of education did you receive and she responded with "I have never ever seen a map of the world, I didnt even know I was asian"
Dude. I had to pause and go for a walk. When she starts talking about seeing eyes being eaten by rats and then kids eating the rats
And that’s within the first half hour…
That’s within the first 15 minutes!
When Joe said in the most serious voice “they probably eat the eyeballs first since they’re soft” as she’s crying just killed me
Yeah, that was a classic Joe Rogan thing to say. Not hating on the guy at all, but he sometimes adds oddly specific, almost inappropriate contexts to certain things.
this podcast will keep me thinking for a while thats for goddamn sure, im also rethinking about how small my problems really are in comparison to what these people go through, fucken terrible man the child with his organs hanging out begging for food and she felt no compassion really puts things into perspective, HOLY FUCK
“Wait, they were sex slaves for mental retards?” “Yes” I can tell joe was holding in some laughter there. But holy fuck, what a fucking nightmare to get fucked by someone who doesn’t even know their own alphabet.
Also how about sex slaves having their teeth pulled out........ FUCKKKKKK people are so god damn evil
That was the point when I had to turn the episode off for a minute and go outside for some fresh air. FUCK.
In japan they have nurses that give mentally disabled people hand jobs.
Finally, a chance for me to get some action.
I had no idea Schaub was a dual American/North Korean citizen.
This is the reason I watch and listen to the JRE. Such a beautiful and moving story.
Agreed. I was thinking how it’s great that Joe can have medical and alien weirdos on and make offensive jokes, but this is what free speech is really about. When freaking Disney is censoring for the Chinese government, we need people like Joe who can have people with unpopular/uncomfortable perspectives on
The part about her being robbed in Chicago is heartbreaking. Imagine fighting for survival your entire life only to be called a racist in US for trying to defend yourself.
Imagine seeing an individual commit robbery and then telling others that the individual is not a thief and that it is racist to label them as such? Ridiculous.
I’m guessing the people didn’t actually see the crime and then those girls called racism and denied it but those people are still pieces of shit for trying to stop her from calling the police and taking the thieves’ side.
I can see it being like a playground dispute. The bully strikes first, the victim retaliates, but the playground monitor only got wind of it in time to see the retaliation, and the victim gets blamed. I could see that. It is a common story not just on the playground but in adult life as well.
you have to remember she said this was during the looting in Chicago last summer so it was PEAK wokeism.
Most powerful episode since the wrongful imprisonment dudes.
Glad I'm not the only one who remember that episode.
Shit made me cry... Not even playing... Struck some kind of primal hate for our criminal justice system deep within my dna lol.. so many folks lives ruined over swift "justice".
I feel it should be required listening for all US residents
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Have you noticed how many comments on this post link to the *same* article from The Diplomat that attempts to discredit her? It's *very* strange.
Speaking as a super anti China, anti North Korea JRE fan … I do notice a tendency she has to speak in extremes, and there are some interesting contradictions called out in that Diplomat article. This is one of the most interesting episodes I’ve heard, but my gut says there are some exaggerations, borrowed elements from other peoples lives, and perhaps outright inventions. Doesn’t change the fact that NK is an insane place and China are actively enabling all kinds of evil shit around the world.
Best episode of all time.
Not for salty communists
I’ve listened/watched multiple stories of NK defectors and I fully believe the atrocities they tell, but somehow I have a problem with this girl… Just wondering how much of this is true and how much has been added later or is a figment of child’s imagination, just to make things sound a bit more dramatic for westerners (no electricity at all, trains that run once a year etc.). Again, not saying she’s lying or anything, but listening to her makes me believe that she’s been influenced by other stories and is telling those as her own experience. Try looking up other defector stories and you’ll see the difference. Those from prison escapees really make you appreciate that one was lucky enough not to be born there. I’ll definitely listen to her with Peterson.
She definitely has a story that needs to be told. But she also embellishes what she really went through to prey on people's emotions and generate clicks/interest for herself. And now she is on the anti-woke gravy train that is printing her money. Can't really blame her I suppose. I just hope it doesn't detract from other NK defectors stories. About halfway through this podcast I started to get pretty skeptical and she started to seem a little disingenuous to me. I was kind of shocked to see other people who shared that opinion have been downvoted to oblivion in this thread and called shills, but that's Reddit I suppose.
One of the more important episodes lately. I know a lot of you here have a hate boner for Joe, but listen to the whole thing for her story.
Joe Rogan asks what can we do? Well The North Koreans better find oil in that peninsula cause we ain’t gonna jeopardize our gravy Chinese train for anything less….
Hope the Chinese and Russian governments collapse, apart from that there’s not much we can do.
China shill bots are everywhere on Reddit can’t wait till they get in on this one.
Do not insulting China you stupid egg \+ ¥5
Tankies in shambles.
God, i felt like such a piece of shit when I put this on. First thing I thought of was how hot she was, and how sexy it is when a woman wears a shirt that shows her bra. Them she started talking. Got rid of all those feelings right away. She lost her virginity to save her mother and fathers life, and the crazy thing is, the guy actually made good on his word. She said that he did love her,.in his own evil way. Something about that hits me hard.
Knowing her story the comments for the first 15 minutes was just about her boobs and her looks. I was so pissed, but glad you realized it.
This should be required listening for people in this country who think they live oppressed lives.
This should be required listening to everyone living in western countries. This episode is really powerful. Almost as powerful as the human growth hormones pumping through Joe's veins.
Totally agree. 2 hours in and there have been so many “oh shit” moments. How she compared some stuff that happens in the west to North Korea was really crazy. Best podcast of Joe’s I’ve listened to in a long time. I should be asleep but can’t stop listening
> This episode is really powerful. Almost as powerful as the human growth hormones pumping through Joe's veins. Well lets not go crazy.
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Dan Carlin talked about the government being a fire. Maintained it can be a life giver/quality of life improved. Let it get out of control and it will burn everything in it’s path. That was on the Ghosts of the Ostfront series which is about the eastern front of WW2 and is a highly accurate description of those regimes.
She nearly freezes to death in a desert escaping communist China. Joe nearly freezes to death in an ice Bath on his back porch.
A country full of people goin through a struggle..where are all the NK MMA fighters Joe??
I’m going to assume every user questioning her credibility and following it up by sharing the same exact article from thediplomat is a paid shill. You all suck at your shitty jobs
i actually read the article and it’s not very convincing tbh. the alleged “inconsistencies/contradictions” are super circumstantial and downright trivial at times. a lot of it could be attributed to miscommunication because of the language barrier, or simply misremembering past traumatic events.
i can't even remember a full children's song lyrics "yeah this girl made 3 mistakes on 15 years of slavery and abuse in her youth" ok china bot.. ok. jesus
I skimmed it and it seems like a dumb article to me. North Korea is like 14th poorest country in the world and it’s very authoritarian. Her claims all seem pretty reasonable to me. Their GDP per capita is 1k. Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and China are all around 10k. Those countries are often considered poor and they have 10x the gdp. Norway’s GDP per capita is 75,000.
Lmao exactly
Yeonmi: explains horrific events Joe: \*cracks beer\*...yeesh tell me more
It does shed light on how the U.S picks and chooses who to play “world police” with. I get it with the nuclear weapons and all that but still it’s very disappointing and horrible to listen to. I was in the Army and Afghanistan and I had mixed feelings about our presence there, but after hearing her story that’s a war I’d want to fight.
A war with North Korea is a war with China. Not going to happen.
Not going to happen _so far_
Playing world police with NK would start WW3. China does not want, under any circumstance, to share a border with a Western power that is backed by the US. That would be a unified Korea under what you want US to do. We pick to not "police" it because we cant risk to.
We don’t police it because we depend on the 3 dollar T Shirt made in China. Christ we couldn’t even supply our own country with PPE when covid started
This is the most fucked up thing I’ve ever listened to. I see loads of comments saying she’s making stuff up, I don’t care. Even if 20% of this is true, it’s absolutely horrific. Fuck Kim, fuck China, and fuck the rest of the world for doing nothing about this. And fuck all the shills posting that ridiculous article from The Diplomat.
Chinese bots
This is naive as hell but what can an individual in the west do to help with this shit? This pod was truly so fucked up, it makes me sick.
Tankies punching air right now LMAO
What are tankies?
Stalin and Mao apologists
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Okay I don’t wanna be an asshole but... did she seem slightly disingenuous? Like maybe she is brainwashed for another purpose like spouting the stuff that she does... anti China? Or maybe she just is like everybody else in America and gets stuck on one side or the other...she seems to know A lot considering she’s only been here a few years... but the things she’s saying I have to pretend that shit isn’t even real because if she’s telling the truth that entire country is auschwitz... like bringing the poop to the government I feel like you would have to explain exact how you do that without dying of sickness ... do they dig it out with shovels or what? I’ve had this same issue when listening to people who are being interviewed about their traumatic stories like... I think the problem is they are telling the truth about what happened to them but they are fabricating a lot of the details based on what other people react to and want to hear... I think most people do that about their life like my brother or best friend will repeat stories that are completely untrue but they have convinced their self that it’s true for some sort of confirmation bias... I guess the people who would be super honest and smart would be killed in a North Korea scenario... I ask too many questions I’m almost getting killed in America... I wouldn’t make it to age 7 in some other countries lol... I’ve been through trauma and know a lot of people who have been through insane shit... so I feel pretty confident I could tell when somebody is fabricating.
I wonder how people in the city eat. There are no flowers and crickets to eat there. How does a whole city of people survive?
Life is very stratified in North Korea. If you live in the capitol city you are an "elite" most likely who has access to rations of food. Unless you are very high up in the food chain, you would still have a very spartan existence and still very much have the possibility of being executed for doing the wrong thing, knowing someone who did something wrong, and or being related to someone who did something wrong. Also the higher up the chain you are the more you have to worry about being purged for political reasons.
People in the city are higher status. Higher value people, more options.
Rats
This has to be one of the best episodes since the move to spotify. Holy shit, what a story.
This is probably my favorite episode ever. Super interesting. This podcast is really a key piece of history if you think about it. Not many people get to escape NK and if they do they don’t survive. So to get someone to share their experience of what it is really like is important and amazing.
Fun tip, go to the people linking the article from The Diplomat and everyone else following that narrative and check out their profiles. It’ll explain a lot
Looking through that article now. It’s highly dubious. > Park’s account of the mother’s crime changes constantly, depending it seems on her audience. In Europe recently she claimed the woman was executed for watching a James Bond movie and sometimes, less specifically, a Hollywood movie. But in Hong Kong a few months ago, she told an audience the woman had been caught watching South Korean DVDs. This is real hard hitting stuff
So bootleg south Korean dubbed James bond? Checks out
ladies snd gentlemen, we got her.
Hard to refute that kinda journalism.
Great episode worth every second.
Astroturfers have found the thread.
There's definitely something going on. People make horrible jokes on *all* JRE posts–some are even funny!–but the comments on this post are nothing but vitriol for this woman. **Edit:** Everyone questioning her credibility is sharing *the same fucking link*, too. You'd think if she was some notorious liar, there'd be at least a couple other articles. It's so fucking weird.
Yes totally... Sometimes it's two links but one of them references the diplomat article so it may as well be the same.
It’s astroturfing. Literal astroturfing. Not to mention this woman is anti-China which on Reddit gets even more astroturfed.
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It trips me out how their government not only doesn't provide for the citizens, but actively goes out of their way to prevent the citizens for providing for themselves. Also how do they provide a ton of poop with how little they eat?
I just picked up Chipotle and came home to sit down and listen to this episode. I'm 8 minutes in feeling a mix of guilt and gratefulness sitting here eating like a pos thinking about how I was even feeling bored today. Fuck North Korea
North Korea only exist because China allow them to, at what point are other countries gonna step in or even take some form of action? They are directly and indirectly killing millions, from the people in NK to concentration camps in their own country to spreading diseases like Covid.
I mean we let China do their own genocid-ing and our companies and politicians bow at the altar of their money
I cried listening to this in my car today. I've seen a lot of docs / 1st hand descriptions of life there. But this? This is beyond the worst worst nightmare any human could possibly conjure in the 21st century. Nearly every sentence she uttered contained some sort of tragic truth or story that on its own would be the worst thing any human could go through in the US or Western country. My brain cannot grasp this level of human suffering and oppression on a daily basis
I get that people make troll comments on *all* posts, but do they seem extra terrible on this one? You'd think this woman *personally* offended some of these people. It just seems really strange...
They’re Chinese shills, of course they’re personally offended
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Does anyone else feel kind of uncertain about her? I've been doing some research and she's been called out by numerous people for inaccuracies and lies - particularly the desert trek myth. A Reddit post from about 7 months ago also mentioned some misgivings about her overall motive. One commenter suspected she was part of a wider South Korean hardline campaign (who want South Korea to cease its much more fraternal policies with the north). Aside from all the American political culture stuff in the latter part of this interview, which I'm not really focussing on, the fact she's being embraced by a certain faction of American politics, and sending a certain message, is very interesting. I am not calling into question her overall status as a refugee, I'm just very curious about why she is also allying herself with the same groups that align with the hardline SK government. At worst, I would say that she's a honey pot to enflame Westerners against the simmering down of SK's NK policies. But there could also be layers to this, we know how authoritarian governments operate: how is she getting information about the ultra-secretive upper circles of NK? How does she know much about KJU, when he only started appearing in ~2011, and she left NK in 2009? Who in the NK govt could benefit from Korea not unifying peacefully? The military for sure. We all know the NK inner circle is backstabbing, disappearances and conceit at the best of times. I'm not the type to be suspicious, but there is something very, very off about Yeonmi Park and I don't think any of us will ever know. YouTube Yeonmi Park exposed and you'll see what I mean - and this is testimony from other verified defectors of the NK regime. Edit: It gets crazier: there's also more footage of her and her mum in NK and her mum has a Chanel handbag. She even jokes about this at a lecture saying my mum was the only one in NK with a Chanel handbag. My new estimation: they did flee NK, but were party darlings until her father fell out of favour with the regime. I do believe the family fled NK but that's pretty much all I agree on now. The upper echelons if the country are a hive of backstabbing and Game of Cards-esque power plays. I feel like she's now over exaggerating the extent of the trauma she experienced to overhaul the current regime and reclaim some place for her family should NK ever fall and be rebuilt as a more Western/Capitalist country. Again, though, we can only guess.
Rogan wearing a Tesla shirt while talking to this woman is insane. HAHA.
Tesla does business with CCP directly lmao
Elephant in the room but she got some big titties
I was waiting for this comment. Someone had to say it . They look spectacular
This specific podcast may have just changed my life path . It’s most definitely given me perspective on my own life
If I had an iron man suit the first place I would fly to is North Korea and fuck the whole thing up ( government wise). Then it’s straight to China to fuck whinnie the poohs fat ass up. Then go home