North Korean defector to reach out to Hong Kong students on her escape to China and South Korea
Celebrity activist Park Yeon-mi brushes off death threats following the assassination of Kim Jong-un’s half-brother in Kuala Lumpur
A high-profile but controversial North Korean defector will reach out to Hong Kong students on Tuesday as she continues her speaking tour on her escape from the repressive regime.
It will be the first encounter with local students for Park, a 23-year-old studying in New York, who is currently on her third visit to Hong Kong.
She will also address churchgoers on Thursday.
As she addressed an audience at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Central on Monday, Park was asked whether she feared for her safety after the recent assassination in Kuala Lumpur of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“I could have been killed many times before,” said Park, who escaped to China with her mother over the frozen Yalu River in 2007 before making it to South Korea via Mongolia two years later.
The daughter was sold to a mainland trafficker as his mistress before she once again escaped.