Yeonmi Park & Daniel DiMartino | The Price of Freedom
About this Event
NDSU’s Challey Institute and Young America's Foundation invite you to join us for a conversation with Yeonmi Park and Daniel DiMartino on Wednesday, October 7th. This event is free and open to all members of the NDSU community and the public. The talk will begin at 5:30 p.m., in the Oceti Sakowin Ballroom, followed by an audience Q&A. All are invited to stay for a reception with hors d'oeuvres and refreshments at 7:00 p.m.
This event is co-sponsored by the Challey Institute and Young America's Foundation.
Who is Yeonmi Park and Daniel DiMartino?
Born in North Korea, human rights activist and YAF Speaker Yeonmi Park grew up in a punishing society devoted to the worship of Kim Jong-Il. But at the age of 13, she and her family made a daring escape to China in search of a life free of tyranny. In her viral talks, viewed online nearly 350 million times, Park urges audiences to recognize—and resist—the oppression that exists in North Korea, and around the world.
Growing up in Hyesan, North Korea, it was normal for Park to see dead bodies as she walked to school, and to be so hungry that she ate wild plants. After watching a pirated copy of Titanic, the veil of tyranny began to fall. Having caught a glimpse of a free world, Park realized that her experience of life wasn’t the only one—and that she might one day find a way out.
In 2002, Park’s family suffered a crucial blow when her father was arrested and sent to Pr*son camp for engaging in “illegal trading”—selling materials that no one would be punished for in a free society. In 2007, Park’s sister escaped with a friend before she and her mother followed her to China. But before they could locate her, Park and her mother were sold separately to Chinese human traffickers. In 2009, Park and her mother crossed the Gobi Desert to Mongolia from China in -40-degree weather, finding their freedom in South Korea. She recounts this incredible story in her searing memoir In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom, and in the insightful, moving talks based on her experiences.
A candid speaker, Park is fast becoming a leading voice of oppressed people around the world. At the Oslo Freedom Forum and the One Young World Summit in Dublin, she became an international phenomenon, delivering passionate and deeply personal speeches about the brutality of the North Korean regime. Her address to One Young World on the horrors of detention camps, political executions, and sex trafficking has been viewed over 320 million times. The BBC named Park one of their “Top 100 Global Women."
Park is also the author of While Time Remains: A North Korean Defectors’ Search for Freedom in America, published on February 14, 2023.
Daniel Di Martino holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University. He is a Graduate Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and serves on the Center for Entrepreneurship & Free Enterprise Board of Advisors at Young America’s Foundation.
Born and raised in Venezuela, Di Martino experienced first-hand the devastating consequences of socialism. After leaving Venezuela for the United States in 2016, he dedicated himself to explaining how socialism destroyed his homeland, advocating for Venezuela’s freedom, and working to prevent this ideology from being implemented in the United States and elsewhere.
Di Martino appears frequently on national television networks such as Fox News and CNN; writes for USA Today, National Review, and other major outlets; and speaks regularly at college campuses and events across the country.
He is also the founder of the Dissident Project, which provides students with access to informed, thoughtful perspectives on how authoritarianism takes hold, what happens when it does, and what America can learn from the failures and human costs of current and former socialist states around the world.
How do I attend?
Yeonmi Park and Daniel DiMartino will speak in the Oceti Sakowin Ballroom in the Memorial Union at North Dakota State University. All are invited to join us for the conversation with them at 5:30 p.m., followed by a reception with hors d'oeuvres and refreshments at 7:00 p.m. Parking is available in the visitor parking lots (), and these lots are free to use after 4:30 p.m.
Want to RSVP?
While RSVPs are not required, they are greatly appreciated and encouraged.
• To join us in person, RSVP here on Eventbrite using code "PRICEOFFREEDOM"
• To join us virtually, register on Zoom.
About the Series
The Menard Family Distinguished Speaker Series hosts world thought leaders to share their ideas with the NDSU community on big questions that explore ways to improve the human condition and create economic opportunity. The Distinguished Speaker Series is sponsored by the Challey Institute thanks to a generous gift by the Menard Family.
Where is it happening?
