Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - Yeonmi Park on The Heavies, North Korean Rat Stew & Dating Black Guys
Episode Date: February 14, 2023Yerrrrr, we're back with Yeonmi Park where we got her opinion & personal stories on North Korea, her love for America, Joe Rogan, her harrowing time at Columbia University & much much more. INDULGE! ...00:00 Do you know about the heavies? 00:54 Andrew squirming while explaining the heavies 04:32 Yeonmi Park - eating bugs, rats and NYC rats 13:47 The horrors of escaping to China 17:17 N. Korea will arrest 3-8 generations of your family 19:30 Crossing a desert into salvation 21:42 Becoming a mother made her believe in God 22:30 N. Korea resorts and Pleasure Squad Members 23:45 Pyongyang Propaganda 27:07 China uses N. Korea to look good 33:31 Takes an operation to stay in contact with N. Korea 39:28 South Koreans discrimination + stereotypes 41:44 Kim Jung-il myths + Dictator of Soho 49:55 Yeonmi meeting her first Black Man 51:12 Yeonmi takes the Asian test 53:57 Meeting gay people in San Francisco 56:44 More difficult - NK or marriage? Whites are weird 59:06 Dating in America + too soft on men 01:06:07 Being robbed in Chicago + Florida freedom 01:10:38 Yeonmi on Weed, MDMA + Psilocybin 01:12:52 Gays are the best with drugs 01:13:35 Yeonmi - Burning Man might be too much 01:15:55 American food that puts Yeonmi off 01:21:38 Yeonmi dating history - Whites, Persians but no Koreans 01:25:08 Jews loves Asians 01:27:48 Yeonmi - abroad is dangerous + guns 01:32:22 “The Interview” - first movie Yeonmi saw in US 01:33:08 Guard against being used + people scared of China 01:36:10 NK Prisons v US - who loves the meats? 01:39:22 Christians were the only ones that cared 01:42:03 Universities are woke or manufactured? 01:47:33 Elon Musk’s Mars will North Korea 01:50:01 Must tolerate all viewpoints including Marxism 01:52:43 Instilling values + Caste system + Food for sex 02:01:00 Meeting Harvey Weinstein 02:01:56 Nearly meeting Leo DiCaprio + Hottest guy in the world 02:08:44 Importance of movies + no one cares about North Korea 02:11:01 Answering the critics of Yeonmi Park 02:17:50 Black money funding Yeonmi? 02:19:36 Andrew was never invited to cookouts 02:27:17 Only way to stop Marxism: make everyone millionaires 02:33:10 Things Yeonmi wants to try + Freedom is painful 02:38:20 Gangnam Style was MASSIVE + Korean Names 02:43:59 All Yeonmi’s girlfriends are in open relationships 02:45:43 “Don’t tell me what to do” - White men are weird
Transcript
Discussion (0)
All the people at home are wondering one thing right now.
Yeah?
Do you know about the heavies?
Today we are joined by an absolute legend.
A woman whose resilience makes David Goggins look weaker than the liver king's sperm count.
She's the ultimate survivor.
A New York Times best-selling author.
And she's taken out more rats than the Columbo crime family.
She's got the only North Korean nukes to touch American soil.
Right now, give her a warm, flagrant welcome,
the unstoppable Yeonmi Park, everybody.
Yeonmi!
Okay, now, before we begin,
because obviously we want to talk about your life
and everything that's going on, your books,
but before we begin, all the people at home
are wondering one thing right now.
Yep.
Do you know about the heavies?
I can't assume, but what part is it?
Is it, I mean, my butt?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I think it's the other part. Yeah, yeah,, my butt? Yeah. I don't know.
I think it's the other part.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the other part.
I've never seen you blush. Yeah, I know.
I'm not blushing.
I'm only blushing right now.
Do you still think so in person?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, is that the right answer?
I've never been embarrassed on a podcast.
Okay.
So, basically, the story.
Come on.
You've got to tell the story.
I called you.
I'm, like, hot right now.
Okay.
I called you.
I called you, like, two or three days ago because I wanted you to be in on the joke,
and I just had to make sure.
Yeah.
So, I called you.
He's looking at you in the eyes so hard right now.
He's not letting his eyes wander at all.
At all.
It's going to be right here the entire time.
Laser focused.
Yeah.
Laser focused.
Al's got his sunglasses on today.
Yeah, he's protected.
Okay.
So, basically what happened, it's just here or here I look.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, basically I called you and I was like, hey, I just want you to know, are you familiar
with like the comments on Instagram sometimes saying the heavies or people lifting the weights.
Yep.
And you said to me, you were like, I thought people were saying I was getting fat.
Yeah.
Which made me feel worse.
I was like, am I getting too big for these people?
Oh my gosh.
I mean, in places, look.
So I felt horrible that, you know, you came from this place, you're coming from North Korea where you don't have food easily accessible to you.
And then you get to America where you can eat whatever you want.
And you're immediately body shamed into not eating.
So I feel bad about that part of it.
Only that part.
Only that part.
But I'm glad that you know, you know, you're in on the joke now.
Perfect.
Yes.
Okay, good, good, good, good.
So what does exactly weightlifting relate to?
Oh, boy.
What does it mean?
Do you want to demonstrate maybe?
You know what?
Okay.
I get the word, but like what's the lifting part?
I don't lift, that's why.
Well, the weight, okay.
I'm embarrassed.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
So basically, our word for, how do you say boobs in Korean?
Bad or good one, like the more polite one?
Yes.
Kasum.
Kasum.
How do you say the less polite one?
No, thank you.
Okay, good, good, good, good.
Okay, good.
So the most polite way to say it in English is obviously the heavies, right? That's the polite way to say it. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good, good, good. Okay, good. So the most polite way to say it in English is obviously the heavies, right?
That's the polite way to say it.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's his way of saying it.
It's his polite way.
Because you're not saying it.
You're just saying it's the head.
It's like the soup heavily.
The heavies.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
So, and then when we said the heavies, people put the weights because weights are heavy.
Oh, okay, okay. That's the comment. It's intricate. Oh, okay, okay.
That's the comment.
It's intricate.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But now you know everything.
Yep.
Now I get it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, good.
So do you still want to be here?
Yeah.
Actually, you did my story.
This is the first time
people made fun of me in person.
Welcome to America, baby. Welcome to America, baby!
She said, I love freedom.
Now, I would like to kind of go over
some of your life story
for the people that aren't familiar with you.
Is that cool?
Yeah, totally.
Okay, so you grew up in Calabasas, right?
Next to the Kardashians.
Next to the Kardashians.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That I did not know.
Okay.
That's a lot to learn today.
No, no.
So you're born in North Korea.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yes.
That's kind of wild.
Uh-huh.
What was the city
that you were born in?
Haesan.
Haesan.
It's a northern part
of North Korea.
Northern part of North Korea.
Are you going there
on the next tour?
No, I don't think that we're, they don't do comedy shows there, do you?
So I think that's the thing, like in North Korea, I knew about comedy,
but in comedy, they have to glorify the dictators, like the leaders in their comedy.
You can do that.
So I was like so shocked in America, people can make fun of everything.
Or themselves or anything.
Some people's entire act is making fun of leaders. That's all they do is make fun of everything. Yeah. Or themselves or anything. Yeah.
Some people's entire act is making fun of leaders.
Yeah. That's all they do is make fun of them. Well, there's a dinner that they have every year
where you make fun of the president. And the president
is there. And the president has to be there. And then
get made fun of in front of everybody in the world.
And then get executed. No execution.
Crazy. What a question, dude.
Yeah. Wow.
Some people say the reason Donald Trump
ran for president
is because he was made fun of
at that dinner
before he was president.
And everybody was laughing at him
and he just said,
all right, fuck it.
I'm going to show you
how easy this is.
So is this a conspiracy theory
or real?
What is real?
Do you know what I mean?
What is real anymore?
Okay, so you grow up there.
Okay.
And your life is incredibly difficult growing up there.
I mean, even accessing food is incredibly hard, right?
You had to eat...
Grasshoppers.
Grasshoppers.
Dragonflies.
Butterflies.
Dragonflies.
Dragonflies.
Butterfly sounds kind of nice.
Butterflies is okay.
It actually sounds beautiful when you say it like that.
What's your favorite insect?
Like, if you had to rank them.
We, grasshoppers.
Grasshoppers, right?
They are very chunky meat.
I mean, dragonflies, not much to eat.
Not much there, right?
Harder to catch, too.
No, we use a spider web.
So we make a little round wire, and we go through a lot of spider webs.
So we make a lot of nets, and then we catch them.
It's easy.
With spider webs? Yeah. Wow. So August is the dragon of nets and then we catch them. With spider webs? Yeah.
Wow. So August is a dragonfly
season so we catch every web. So everybody's eating
good in August. So you're like bears. You eat
in August and then you just starve for the next week.
I'll see you.
It's funny enough, that's why we call
spring is a season of death.
Wait, really? Because in spring a lot of plants
don't grow. It's not quite the time, you know, like this right now.
February, March is the hardest.
From April, there's a hope.
We can find some bud or, like, food to find.
Wow.
Now, you also told that story on Rogan about eating the rats.
Yeah.
Yeah, and then you saw even kids eating rats.
Yeah.
And then the rats eating the kids also.
Once they died, yeah.
I mean, unbelievable.
This is a common occurrence to eat the rats?
Or this is like, was there a month?
What's unbelievable is like this to me right now.
This is unbelievable.
Yeah, it's like in North Korea, like we, it was, I couldn't fathom how can you not worrying about finding food.
Yeah.
That was just daily life for us.
Yeah, yeah. And like I had no clue a world like this existed. Yes. how can you not worry about finding food? That was his daily life for us.
And I had no clue a world like this existed.
And their problem was having too much food.
Yes, that is the problem. Yeah, that's his problem.
He has a big problem with that.
Yeah, I have certain things I just don't want to eat
because I don't want to get so fat.
That's what Americans were teaching me
when I came to America.
They said, you need to watch the food label
and don't eat rice.
Did they tell you that right away?
Because right away you probably needed the food there.
It's kind of a stressful thing to do.
You've been starving your whole life and they're like, well, don't eat too much.
In South Korea, they didn't feed us.
So we had a nutritionist within government.
So they would feed us.
Initially, we cannot digest normal food like normal people.
I mean like the Holocaust survivors,
you cannot give them steak.
Their stomach cannot process all that fat.
And salt like that.
So you need to start with a little bit of water
and some salt, and that increases the fat in the food.
Yeah, I was listening to that podcast.
You said that your first meal when you were in South Korea
was eggs.
That was the wildest thing that you could dream of.
Yeah, boiled eggs.
Yeah, but I do need to know,
because I grew up in New York City,
and there are tons of rats in New York City.
Yep.
Now, you also moved here, you went to school here.
Yep.
Were there ever times where you saw rats,
and you were like, you know, running back one time? That's important. Did you think about that at all? Just because it's old like, you know, run it back one time?
Did you think about that at all?
Just because it's old habit, you know what I mean?
It's like...
So I got intimidated by American rats
because they were so much bigger than North Korean rats.
So even though...
Because they get more food.
Even the rats are fat here.
Even the rats are obese.
Even like size of like rabbit.
Yeah. You could of a rabbit.
You could feed a family.
Yeah, my mom and I were like,
in the subway, we're like, is that a rat?
It's a bunny almost.
You know?
Different size rats.
North Korean rats, maximum is like this big.
Oh, wow.
Very small.
They cannot grow because we catch them before they become big too.
Is there a way to prepare it?
Like, is there like a dish?
I mean this honestly.
Like, is there a way that you, what is the best rat dish?
So rat dish depends.
Like, if the people have a lot of TB, tuberculosis, right?
Right.
I mean, I had my sister, everybody knows.
Everybody gets TB.
From malnutrition.
Right.
So in that case, we need to boil it.
So we skin it and then get the intestines out.
No.
And then we boil it until the bones become...
What's wrong?
What?
I'm just imagining cooking those rats.
It's crazy.
Keep going.
Keep going.
Yeah.
What are you doing? I'm just imagining cooking those rats. It's crazy. Yo, keep going, keep going. Yeah, yeah.
What are you doing?
It's a delicacy, you know? It's a delicacy, Al.
Are there any things you miss?
Like, do you miss the grasshoppers?
Like, would you consume any of that stuff now?
Oh, hell no.
Oh, no?
You don't have to eat it anymore, but we're just saying.
Maybe you miss it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No just saying. Maybe you miss it.
No, nothing about that food I miss. I think now in America they keep saying how we need to eat insects to save the planet.
Like, no way.
I'm joking, you know.
It's like I would not want to go back.
Yeah.
So.
There is a restaurant, I'm pretty sure, in Midtown that does, like, insects.
There's protein bars with crickets in them.
It's like a Peruvian restaurant
where like they'll do
like ant rice
and so there's rice
with ants in it.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
But there's a lot of places
in the world
that will eat like grasshoppers
or chocolate covered crickets
or something like that.
Yeah, chocolate covered.
That's the point.
Yeah, that's what you guys need.
Yo, you're right.
Chocolate's doing the heavy lifting.
Why didn't you guys do chocolate?
You should have just gotten
some chocolate into it.
You want to send aid to North Korea?
I'll do, dude.
Just ship them some Cadbury's.
That's all you need.
Yeah.
Okay, okay.
So the rats, that was pretty much it.
Sometimes you do it.
You said sometimes you do it.
Boiled.
Snakes, but snakes is common.
There are people that eat snakes.
But the rats is just the most wild thing.
Yeah, I think so.
Wow, yeah.
I think to us, because we're so used to trying to get rid of them.
Also, Western people have this huge fear of rats wild thing. Wow. Yeah, I think to us because we're so used to like trying to get rid of them. You know, also like
Western people
have this huge fear of rats
because it killed like
a third of the human population.
Okay.
Have you heard of like
the Black Plague
or the Bubonic Plague?
Yeah, of course, in Europe, yeah.
So there's probably like
this little concern.
I think to this day
that shocks me
is like what
I remember eating cockroach.
Yes.
I think that I'm sure like nobody
wants to like date me right now you're engaged though you already but um cockroach we eat as a
snack and if you it's like with my friends like they're boys like they are faster cockroach are
faster so they catch it yeah and then they show me how to eat it if you flip their tummy.
There's inside, like, it looks like a little grain in it.
Looks like a brown rice grain.
So that's the most, like, delicious part in cockroach.
Oh.
Really?
You got to do a cooking show.
This would be awesome.
You could be on the Food Network.
This would be cool.
That I'm not proud of.
See, because this guy,
one time we were eating
and there was a fly in his soup,
like one small little mosquito,
and he wanted the whole meal to be free.
That's not true.
No, he wanted the whole thing to be free
because he said,
I eat it.
You don't eat it.
I don't care.
If you found one little fly in your food,
would you be like,
oh, that's gross,
and throw it away?
Leave it in.
Totally.
I mean, it's good for your immune system.
That's how I survived.
I have zero, zero allergy.
You would just keep going.
Maybe, but I was like, do you have allergy?
No.
What's an allergy?
What's an allergy?
Exactly.
You don't have a word for allergy, no.
Right.
Yeah, because we eat everything.
Oh, that's crazy.
So you never complain when you go to restaurants?
No.
Never.
If the quantity is not big enough, I complain.
If it's not big enough?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, you want the American portions.
Yeah, like the Texas stuff.
Yeah.
Texas stuff is a big Texas stuff.
If you're paying 80 bucks for a dish, you don't want one little bite, you know?
No, I hate that.
That's a North Korean restaurant.
They just give you one little bite of something?
I don't want that.
We don't have a restaurant.
Oh, yeah.
We don't have a free market.
But if you open one here, though, it could be good.
Yeah.
Now, what do you say when, like, okay, let's continue on your story.
So, 13 years old, you find a way to basically escape to China, right?
And you and your mother go.
Yeah.
Okay.
You escape to China.
How?
By crossing a frozen river?
Yeah.
And it was so cold that the guards are down?
Like, what is this situation?
How do people stop the illegal immigration?
So, there are're like, every 10
meters, guards with machine guns.
And now after Kim Jong-un came,
he buried the landmines
and then put the
electrified wire fences
and then facial recognition cameras
from China put on the border.
So now escaping from
North Korea became impossible. But you were before this,
right? I was right before that.
It was still, though, like, with machine guns and guards every 10 meters.
And they just didn't see you because it was dark?
No, the people who—the lady was helping me, she was a broker.
So she bribed the guards.
That's why I didn't get shot.
Okay, so she bribes the guards, and then you and your mother get across.
And then immediately after getting across, your mother is sold.
You told this story on Rogan.
Yeah, so, yeah.
Now, this is, I need to ask something.
You were telling this story, and you said in the story,
I need to know if you were just using this as like a vernacular, like we use it, or this is true.
You said that your mother was sold to mentally retarded farmers. As a sex
slave. No, no. Yeah.
Okay. Your mother was sold
to mentally retarded farmers,
right? Now, were you
saying that in terms of
like we say,
oh, they're mentally retarded, like people that are stupid?
Or they were actually
they were mentally
ill people?
Yeah. Actually can't function.
They cannot put their pants on.
They like limp, like actually physically sick and in their head also sick people.
And they worked as farmers or they owned a farm or something like that?
So they, the one, my mom was sold several times.
So one time she was sold to this family
and of course the son couldn't function.
He was very disabled.
But the parents had a farm.
It was, I think, private.
China privatized after Deng Xiaoping came.
Right.
So they had their own farm.
Holy shit.
Family work.
So she's immediately sold there.
You also sold.
So immediately she was raped.
Oh my God.
And then they brought us together and then negotiating our price.
And then they realized my mom was older, so they sold for like $65 for her.
And then I was a child version.
I was 13 and version.
So they decided to sell me over $20.
Oh, my God.
So sold me separately to a different broker.
Oh, my God.
And this is all part of the person that was transporting you.
She knew when she was transporting you that this would immediately happen on the other side. Yeah.
So this is the cost of getting out.
But the craziest thing is that
I'm not hating her
is because she sold
her children the same way.
Oh my goodness. If I was not get
sold into China, you would not see me
because I've been dead. 100%. In 2007.
Wow. You would not see me today.
Oh my gosh. The only way you could survive
is being sold as a sex slave.
Yeah.
Wow.
And she got executed for that
after a few years later.
Somebody told her or?
The authority caught her
and then they executed her.
Wow.
And when they execute her,
they also arrest eight generations of her family?
Three generations,
up to eight generations.
Between three and eight?
Yeah.
Oh my God.
Now, I know that your father
was arrested earlier.
And when he was arrested,
did other people
also get arrested with him?
So there is two types of crime
in North Korea
called political crime
and economic crime.
So political crime is where
what you do,
you make fun of the president.
Yeah.
That kills eight generations of your wife.
That's a bigger deal.
Eight generations.
It's like literally one guy, the top official, escaped.
More than 30,000 people got sent to prison camp.
They did not even know they were related to that guy because they're so far out from in-laws of the in-laws and in-laws, right?
One guy?
Yeah.
And it was for being critical of the president or the Supreme Leader?
Criticized.
He escaped to South Korea and then criticized the regime.
So he criticized the regime over there, and then they just scooped up his entire family.
35,000 people that were related to him, and that's how they sent the message.
Now, those people, they go to, you said there are three different types of prisons there.
Prison camps, yeah.
There's the concentration camp.
And then labor camp.
Labor camp.
And then one— Re-education camp. The re-education
camp. Re-education camp is a bit less than
two years sentence. Prison
camp is where my father sent over ten
years sentence. Political prison
camp is a lifetime sentence. But
when you go to political prison camp, you don't
last more than three months.
Nazi Germany is, you know,
gas chamber. They worked you to death.
They asked you to clean the debris of nuclear weapon,
those testing sites.
That's why they need-
So you get all the cancer you get?
Of course.
Oh my.
They need all these people to keep testing
nuclear weapons and then clean those debris afterwards.
Oh my God.
You've been so outspoken.
Did they go after your family?
That's what I was going to ask.
They did.
They first put me on their killing list.
And I was informed by South Korean intelligence.
And then they put all my families from mom both sides
and denounced me as the Western propaganda.
Yes.
And then they all disappeared,
which means Constitution.
Oh my God.
Wow.
Now, when you're in China,
you have this unbelievable journey
to get to Mongolia
and then from Mongolia to South Korea.
You have to cross the Gobi Desert.
Yeah.
This is a 24-hour, when I was listening to the podcast,
you said it was a 24-hour straight journey.
It's negative 40 degrees.
What are you wearing?
How are you staying warm?
Like, how do you prepare for this?
Are you taking water?
I'm trying to understand.
It's going to freeze.
Water is going to freeze.
Even your entire thing is all like ice.
If you breathe, it becomes all like ice.
So that's the thing.
I was rescued by missionaries.
Yes.
And they said, you have to believe in miracles.
Otherwise, you're not going to make this journey.
The chance of surviving is 1%.
But we don't have like gloves or gears or like paddings.
Just some like thick jacket and then no
gloves, no scarves, no hat. And so afterwards we got everything frozen or a face took a while for
us to heal our skin. Yeah. The missionaries that you said would make you like, they would test you
on the Bible. And if you didn't do well, they might not take you. Did they do that just so you would believe in miracles more strongly?
Was that the idea?
Do you know why?
Because it seemed to me, I was like, yo, just rescue these people.
Who cares how well they know the Bible?
Right.
So that's the thing.
They believe that North Korean people cannot learn about Bible
because the Kims copied the Bible and brainwashed us in the same theology.
And if people hear about God and Jesus Christ,
you're going to not know the same thing they're telling us.
So in North Korea, if you read the Bible, you get executed.
Wow.
Yeah, it's like the biggest crime you can make in North Korea.
So these Christians thought they need to save North Koreans
and let them know the gospel.
So they rescued us, and the price was us becoming Christians.
And that's why we had to write down those psalms
and memorize and testing and praying and fasting
and a month of training.
Yeah, God would have just saved them, but that's fair.
Wait a minute, and did they, are you still Christian?
Yeah.
Really?
I became one after my son.
I wasn't.
I was an atheist for a long time.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And then having my son, like, what?
This is a miracle.
Yeah.
I had to become one.
Okay, okay.
So then you eventually get to South Korea, from South Korea.
You come over here.
You study at Columbia.
And now you've just gotten your citizenship. Bravo.
Thank you. American citizen.
Okay, so we've got, you know, some
like, we have tons of obviously questions. We're so
curious, and I also want to talk about
your new book and your old book, and we'll make
sure that we plug everything there.
Okay, so many different things
that I want to ask you about. Yeah.
A million. I never write down
like notes for a podcast. Really? This is, these are the notes that I have. I need to ask you about. Yeah. A million. I never write down, like, notes for a podcast.
This is, these are the notes that I have.
I need to know, okay, are there any nice parts of North Korea?
Is there, like, an Aspen?
There are more than 2,000 private resorts for the Kim Jong-un.
Yes.
And in these private resorts, there are all pleasure squad members waiting for him to come visit
pleasure squad members
so these young girls in North Korea
the officials have to find the young girls
who look pretty
and then when they turn 16 or 17
they send them to capital Pyongyang
and train them to become
there are three groups in pleasure squad
the satisfactory group is where you perform
in sex acts and the satisfactory group is where you perform in sex acts.
And the other group is a happiness group
is where you learn how to massage the dictator
or give him the acupuncture like that.
And the last group is a dancer and musicians.
Magicians?
Music.
Oh, musicians.
Oh, I thought he liked magic.
He does like magic, but he likes the girls naked and dancing more than that.
Yeah, most guys like the naked girls more.
I prefer magic.
I weirdly prefer David Blaine.
Yeah, you like magic over it.
Let's be friends after this.
Magic is so much more fun.
Wow, okay.
Okay, so the video, sometimes there are these videos you see coming out of North Korea.
Can, like, and they make North Korea look quite normal.
It doesn't look rich.
Yeah.
But it doesn't look as poverty stricken as people like you and others who have gone to, actually lived in North Korea say.
What do you say about these videos?
Are they all, like, he'll bring up, is it all faked? actually lived in North Korea say. What do you say about these videos?
Are they all fake?
Like, he'll bring up,
is it all faked?
Is it all orchestrated to, like, trick the West?
Like, do you even recognize this place?
It's Pyongyang.
It's the capital of North Korea.
Yeah, do you see that
everything is a propaganda banner.
There's no ads.
All of these.
Oh, there's no advertisement.
No, nobody can get a glory other than dictator.
What does that say?
It doesn't look that bad.
It's like, let's follow the party's order with everything that we have.
So are these places like propped up by the regime to look nice?
Or are there some parts that are nicer and some parts that are more impoverished?
So Pyongyang is like a, have you guys watched the Hangul games?
Yeah.
So it's like North Korea, like that.
There's a capital and there's other districts.
So the capital looks nice.
Yeah.
Because that's called the heart of North Korea, heart of the regime is Pyongyang.
That's called the heart of North Korea,
heart of the regime is Pyongyang.
So that's why regime says,
until we keep, as long as we can keep 10% alive,
which is in Pyongyang,
we are not going to do anything until other people die from this starvation
because it's easy to do socialism
when you have less people.
Oh.
That's why they're starving us on purpose,
to let us die.
Because it's less people to take care of.
Not taking, it's control.
They don't take care of us.
It's easy to control less population, right?
And also if you're starving, you have no energy to fight back.
Right, right.
And they would be worried about these other places coming
and obviously trying to create some sort of revolution.
Yeah, so within North Korea, we have no freedom to travel to Pyongyang.
Oh, I was going to ask you, have you ever been to Pyongyang?
I've been before my father arrested.
I've been once.
Because before your father was arrested,
life was not as good.
He was a party member, yeah.
I had a relatively fine life for North Korean standard.
Really? Yeah.
Interesting.
Which means I have food three times a day,
still no electricity, no cars, no toys,
I still like two pair of clothes,
no shower, no sewage, no bathroom.
I mean-
Oh, and that was good for-
No refrigerator, no washer.
I mean, that was a good North Korean lifestyle.
I was not dying from starvation.
Yeah, because he was a party member.
He was, I mean, six million of men are party members, so it's not that significant.
Got you, got you.
He was a party member member but still, yeah,
better than most of
I guess middle class people.
Wow, okay.
So that's why
they'll let foreigners
go to Pyongyang
because it gives
the perception
like, oh,
it's not as bad
as people say.
It's a Disney world.
Exactly.
But the thing is
even within Pyongyang,
remember that
Otto von Wehr
from Virginia Tech,
the young man
who got killed by the vikings?
Yes, yes.
Even as a tourist, when you go to North Korea, you cannot walk around freely.
You're always accompanied.
Absolutely.
Even in your hotel, we cannot.
His crime was going to the wrong floor in his hotel by himself without the guard.
I'm not even pushing the floor.
Yeah.
I'm saying you push the floor.
Yeah.
I'm not even.
Was there an elevator?
Yeah, there was in the hotel.
Now, where is the money coming into North Korea in order to prop up a city like that?
So, first sources coming from selling weapons.
They sell the nuclear storage to Pakistan, Syria, those countries.
How did North Korea get a nuke?
They got the technology from Soviet Union in the 60s, 70s. So they did North Korea get a nuke? They got the technology from Soviet Union
in the 60s, 70s.
So they helped
North Korea.
And the Soviets
were propping them up
before China.
Yeah.
Through China.
They were like
using North Korea
as a buffer zone
from South Korea,
Japan, and America.
Right, right.
So during the Cold War
they helped North Korea
to build the nukes.
Okay, so they built the nukes
so they have the nukes.
And that's their one what we would call like a Trump card.
Not actual Trump, but it's a term, right?
A Trump card where it's just like, if they didn't have the nuke,
most people would probably just go in there and do regime change
or something like that.
But the fact that they have the nuke, it's a very dangerous proposition.
Right.
Right?
But even before the nukes, they would not go do anything there.
So I don't think
people are interested
in North Korea.
I don't think the argument
where there's no oil
is a real thing.
But just somehow,
I don't think the world
cared about human rights
that much,
even to this day,
that they would, like,
go in there
and change the regime.
Oh, I wasn't talking
about even human rights.
I was talking about, like,
like, for example,
if I'm China, right, do I really want someone who I don't talking about even human rights. I was talking about like, like for example, if I'm China, right?
Do I really want someone who I don't trust,
who has nuclear weapons leading a country?
Or do I want a puppet?
Oh,
China is so grateful because North Korea makes him look good.
I can't imagine like without North Korea.
Yeah,
it's like when a pretty girl has an ugly friend.
Exactly. Right? So you have to walk around with the ugly friend. So people go, Oh my God, she's ugly. Yeah, it's like when a pretty girl has an ugly friend. Exactly.
Right?
So you have to walk around with the ugly friend so people go, oh, my God, she's ugly.
You don't even notice.
At least you're not that bad.
Exactly.
Yeah, not even a pretty girl.
Like, a medium girl with an ugly friend.
Yeah.
Oh, because as long as we're talking about North Korea, we're not talking about what China's doing with the Uyghurs.
Yeah, it's not as bad.
Nothing is going to be comparable to what North Korea does, right?
Oh, wow.
So we're not going to talk about Chinese human rights as much.
Interesting.
That's one reason why they want them to be there.
Also, everything is under Chinese control.
So that's the other thing that I heard you say.
So China bought, I guess, the mineral rights and the mining rights for all of North Korea.
They lent the lands for 300 years.
So basically it's theirs.
It's like we are caused by China.
But not only that,
like North Korea has no oil by themselves.
So they cannot, I mean,
even like test nukes without the oil.
So China got that line for them
because nobody in the world can give them the oil.
Oh, that's right, because they're an embargo.
Yeah.
So if they wanted to, they could just stop oil.
Stop the oil.
It's one week the regime collapses. So China's propping it up. Yeah, they if they wanted to, they could just stop oil. Stop the oil. Just one week, the regime collapses.
So China's propping it up.
Yeah, they don't let them. Even during the pandemic,
they were in the dark, in the black market.
They would give them the oil.
The behind the scenes. New York Times actually covered that up.
Wow. Okay. That's
interesting. I thought that they were just creating
a buffer zone, which is quite
common with countries. You want a little
bit of like, it's very similar to what's happening right now with Russia
and Ukraine.
It's like Ukraine didn't join up with, what is it called again?
NATO.
They didn't join up with NATO, and then Russia was like, okay, there's a buffer right here.
We don't have NATO on the doorstep.
We got something that might be neutral.
We don't know.
And the second they talk about maybe joining up with NATO, it's like, nope, we're in there.
We can't do it.
But what you're saying is interesting.
It's a publicity stunt almost.
They're keeping this country impoverished, enabling the poverty.
So people talk about the atrocities going on there instead of the atrocities going on their country.
Now, my question is, would the world care?
It seems like we don't care what China does to their people in the same way we don't care what Saudi Arabia does to Yemen.
Like, it seems like as long as we're getting something from them or we need something from them, that we just kind of look the other way with the civil rights situation.
That's what I try to change right now.
Yeah.
To make people care.
Yeah.
Because I think people don't realize how dangerous a threat it is really, right?
It's what I'm afraid of is already there.
North Korea is too big to fail.
They're nukes.
They have a capability of attacking actually mainland America.
And while we are getting so destroyed with each other and fighting, infighting, everything,
the enemies are keep growing.
And their only goal is destroying America.
North Korea's only goal is destroying America. North Korea's only goal is destroying
America. Why do they hate us so much?
Because this country
stands up for freedom
and human rights and individual liberty
and all the
things that North Koreans cannot have.
Our culture is very seductive
and it kind of erodes the ideology
of these totalitarian states.
So as long as there is a free society exists,
it's a threat to their ruling.
Right?
People want to be like us.
Yeah.
They want to escape to America.
We don't escape to North Korea.
Yeah.
So that's why North Korean regime
and Chinese regime understand
that if they want to make this a norm,
the dictatorship as a norm in the world,
they need to destroy democracy.
Yes.
But even China has, I think,
relaxed their policy on capitalism for sure, right?
Not when it comes to control of the people.
It got so bad.
But even recently, the people protested the COVID regulations, and then the government acquiesced.
The government said, okay, fine, you guys want to go out there and get COVID?
Go get some COVID.
It's like the first time in like 100 years that this has happened where the government basically... Relented.
Relented, yeah.
Right.
I think that was new about COVID.
Like that people really fed up in China.
Yeah.
But even to this day,
like we have people trying to rescue North Koreans from China.
Yeah.
You cannot get on a bus without your ID
and government authorization.
You cannot go to the next town without
going through a checkpoint.
And it became everything is
isolated prison within China like
North Korea. I also think that
and this speaks to the North Korea
why it's so much more difficult to do in North Korea.
I think that China has a much bigger middle class
and I think when you have a much bigger middle class
they have more power in a revolution
and North Korea does not have that at all.
We don't have zero middle class.
Oh, wow.
Question about COVID.
Did COVID go through North Korea?
Yeah, it did.
And a lot of people were infected?
A lot.
And how did it transmit into the country?
Do you know?
It had to be China because they were the only trading partner.
I mean, COVID is from China.
But it was through trading that people actually got sick.
Nobody really knows.
But North Korea did have COVID.
Oh, interesting.
How do you still get information of what's going on in North Korea?
So that's a big operation.
Like, literally so funny, when I talk to my North Korean brokers,
we have to talk about, like, sugar and candy.
It's all about, like, you know, we try to rescue some people.
So North Korea has no internet.
They don't have international cell service.
So we need to smuggle a Chinese phone through the border to North Korean border.
Then it's closed.
The reason it's so closed, they have a Chinese reception.
So from America, we call Chinese number.
But the border North Korean agent, they can accept the call.
And sometimes the FaceTiming,
but the government, North Korean government,
do jams and watches and listens to all these calls,
so we need to go to the mountain in the bike
to the 32nd Corps.
So on the bike in their hoodie,
and they talk for 30 seconds,
and then about what we want to know,
like how things are going,
like, you know, what we want to get out how things are going like you know who what we
want to get out of north korea then they need to go several miles and do another call it takes a
interesting mission act of congress to make a one phone call to north korea unbelievable yeah i'm not
i'm not uh familiar with the geography that much but are there there places where they can access water and then like take
the ocean?
Some people do. Like in Cuba
for example, that's how people obviously get here.
They'll just make a boat. You cannot
do that in Russia because there's a polytheism.
Even the ocean is sealed by the guards.
The entire ocean?
Whole countries of prison camp.
Entire country is sealed
by the regime. It's a prison camp. Entire country is sealed by the regime.
It's a prison camp.
Entire thing is.
So some people swam for 15 days to Japan.
What?
Literally swam.
A son and father miraculously swam in the freezing winter,
like end of October.
That's North Korea winter.
They somehow survived.
Wow.
Escaped to Japan and South Korea, yeah.
Wow.
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Important stand-up announcement, everyone.
I've booked three shows.
That's it so far.
Three shows, okay? Two are at the New New York Comedy Club
in Stanford, Connecticut, which looks fucking amazing. Shouts to New York Comedy Club.
And Emilio, that new club is beautiful. I'm excited to be there. Those are February 23rd.
Those are sold out. Thank you. Also, Calgary. Calgary, we missed the day last time. We're coming back this time. We'll
be there August 27th, okay? Prince Island Park, Calgary, Alberta. It's part of the Great Outdoors
Comedy Festival, Sunday the 27th. There it is. There's the show. Canada, pull the fuck up.
Going to be wild. 5,000 people. Let's make it special.
I'll see you there.
And what do the other countries in the region
think about this?
Do they talk about it all?
Are they concerned about it all?
Is Japan concerned about what people in North Korea
are going through?
Like I'm trying, do they have empathy for it?
Or is it, I don't know, is there like a kind of like
lasting impasse where they kind of look the other way?
So they do have a sympathy, Japanese, but
they're more scared because whenever North Korea
tests nuclear, it goes above
them. Oh, that's right.
Yeah, they've already gone through that once.
Exactly. So that's their
real problem they actually have.
It can just drop on them and anytime
North Korea shoots a missile. Now you also said
South Koreans look down on North Koreans.
That was kind of surprising to me.
I thought there would be a lot more sympathy for what they have to go through.
Can you talk about that?
I think this is where Americans don't know how other countries are so racist.
How exceptional America is.
Yeah, in South Korea, they discriminate.
Literally, all the people come from poor countries.
That includes, I'm so sorry, India, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and North Korea, too.
We are very poor.
Yeah.
And they look up to people coming from the Western European countries who are white.
Oh.
And so, yeah, even though we speak the same language, we have the same genetics, same history, we are the same Korean,
they just discriminate us because we are coming from a poor country.
Do they have any funny jokes about you guys?
Oh, my God. I mean, a lot of stereotypes.
Okay, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me.
What are the stereotypes? What are the stereotypes?
Super heavy.
I know. So South Korea is a democracy and free market,
so they need to be competitive.
Yeah.
So they have a saying about the communists.
North Koreans don't work hard as much as they do, or they are not as competitive.
They don't understand capitalism.
And they are not trustworthy.
Not trustworthy?
Because we believe that all the propaganda, so we can worship Kim, right, in front of the camera.
They think like, oh, they don't care like we have to do that to protect our families.
They just lie in front of camera and worshipping dictator like that.
Oh so they think you'll believe anything.
Yeah so all those kind of things.
Yeah.
So it's very hard to get a job in South Korea as a North Korean defector.
I mean I will be honest there are some things that they say about Kim.
No, not Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong-il.
There are some things that are pretty
wild. That guy's amazing.
He's done apparently a lot of
really amazing things that
apparently has been propaganda in
North Korea. That he's achieved all these records.
That he's an amazing golfer.
Were you told these things when you were there?
And one thing that I still remember from my
math class teachers... I'm not being rude, I'm looking up
the things I wrote.
At Columbia University,
professors are saying how math is racist,
right? It's made up by white men.
The science, biology, made up by white men.
I thought it was Muslims. I thought it was
Arabs made up... Arabic did numbers, right?
Really? Yeah. But now they blame white men. They think the white men made up the gender science.
I mean, we perfected it.
Yeah, we made it really good.
You know what I'm saying?
But Asians are still the best at it, so I don't understand that part.
Yeah, Asians are really good at it.
But like, so Kim Jong-un, apparently as a child, realized...
So teacher asked me, I mean, what's one plus one?
What do you say? Say two. So the teacher asked me, what's one plus one?
What do you say? Say two.
Yeah, and my teacher said no.
My dear leader discovered if you add one drop of water
on top of another drop of water, what does it become?
Becomes a bigger one.
That's how he proved the math was made up by the white man.
Wow.
That kind of holds up actually.
That's good.
That's good.
That's kind of a good point.
He sounds like a wife.
Yeah.
I'm kind of on his side.
I don't know.
That adds up for me.
Okay.
Can I ask you some of these things and you tell me if these are true
about Kim Jong-un?
Okay.
That Kim Jong-il
learned to walk at eight weeks.
Wow.
I mean, that's what they say, but I mean, it's got to be true.
I am a mother.
That's impossible.
Impossible.
Eight weeks, you cannot do that.
You cannot even crawl.
No, definitely not.
Your kid's not Kim Jong-il, you know?
That's true.
I mean, you never know.
Kim Jong-il played golf.
He shot 38 under par, including 11 holes in one.
Do you know what North Koreans thought when we read that?
That the holes in one were from
the sex camp? We thought, what's golf?
Because we don't have golf for commoners.
Oh, you didn't
know what golf was. So it makes sense.
Of course he's good at golf.
But it's also like he's bragging about stuff that people don't even know what he's
bragging about.
Yeah.
I was like, what's golf?
I actually like that one that he's not,
that he said, like,
oh, I only got 11 holes in one.
Like, he could have...
He didn't go every hole in one.
He wasn't listening.
He could have said...
He wasn't too ridiculous.
Yeah, it's like
when you cheat on a test
and you get some of them wrong,
you're like,
I'm going to throw them off,
you know?
Okay, okay.
Kim Jong-il
invented the hamburger.
Oh, wow.
He called it
the double bread with meat.
That guy is good with names.
He's like Seinfeld, like very creative when the name comes.
Very good, very good with the naming.
I mean, that's what they do.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, never had a hamburger, so I don't know.
Again, he's saying that he's inventing things
that you guys don't even know what the hell it is.
People have no idea what that is.
You're like, of course you did, buddy.
Who would eat meat between bread?
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah, you get executed
for eating beef in North Korea.
Now, he didn't say
he invented the cricket sandwich.
Right.
Right?
He didn't say,
then you guys were like,
no, you didn't.
Yeah, we invented it.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, so some of these
are kind of reasonable.
Okay, okay.
Kim Jong-il's birth
saw a new star be created
and turned winter
into spring.
Oh, wow.
Now,
now,
what day was he born?
If he was born
on the solstice,
that's when winter
turns into spring.
He was born
February 16th.
Oh.
Black History Month.
It's almost his birthday.
Black History Month.
Yes, it's his birthday.
The day of
shining stars year. Exactly. That's his birthday. There's three months. Yeah, it's his birthday. The day of shining star is here.
Exactly.
That's his birthday.
There's a big celebration?
So his father's birthday is the day of sun.
The day of sun.
It's the universe, right?
And he gave his son, who's like Jesus Christ, that's Kim Jong-il, the day of the shining star.
The day of the shining star.
The great general.
Oh, he's just a Jesus' kid.
That's a big step down.
You go from Jesus to general. Yeah, that's true Jesus' kid. That's a big step down. You go from Jesus to general.
Yeah, that's true.
Because they ran out
of Bible stories.
Because the Bible,
in Jesus,
when he was born,
there are stars
showing up.
It's like Game of Thrones.
The source material ran out.
The rainbow is showing up.
The birds are singing.
You get fan fiction and stuff.
Plus, if he was God,
he probably wouldn't be so fat.
He would just make himself skinnier.
Well, it depends.
You guys have fat gods.
Yeah.
The Buddha is extremely fat. You know, he would just make himself skinnier. Well, it depends. You guys have fat gods. Yeah. The Buddha's extremely fat.
Okay.
Kim Jong-un
invented comedy on YouTube
and subtitling clips.
What?
Wow.
I mean,
we don't have internet,
so that we would not know.
Okay, that might be fair.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
That's good.
Kim Jong-un
played Jay Williams
in an exhibition game in what?
7-6.
I have no idea who Jay Williams is.
Okay.
I didn't hear about that one.
I'm just throwing these things out.
I think you're confusing him with the dictator of Soho.
Oh, it might be the case.
It might be the case.
Kim Jong-un loves Adderall, thinks it's the best drug ever for the most fun having time.
I heard he loves cognac and Swiss cheese.
What is cognac and Swiss cheese?
Cognac.
Yeah, cognac.
Cognac is crazy.
And Swiss cheese.
Yeah.
He drinks 13 bottles of wine each night.
That's why he's so fat.
Whoa.
Yeah.
So cognac, Swiss cheese, and wine.
Yeah.
And he's just getting massages all day.
He's like one of those wagyu cows or whatever.
Oh, yeah.
Kobe beef.
Kobe beef.
Yeah, he's like Kobe beef.
So they pick these beautiful girls to massage the cow that he eats.
That's literally one of the pleasure squad tasks.
So the girls have to be beautiful just to massage the cow.
Yeah, they don't use a tool.
They have to hand massage the cow for the litter to take.
That's better than massaging him, to be honest.
Wouldn't you rather rub down the cow?
Totally.
Than the other cow?
But what a waste of human talent.
Well, we don't know their talent.
They're talented.
She's talking about talent like hot girls.
Oh, that's crazy.
No, I mean, just human engineers is wasted.
That is wasted.
That is true.
25 millions of people like South Koreans
have the same capability,
same IQ.
North Korea is one of the
highest IQ by nation
in the world.
Did Kim Jong-il say that?
No, it's world ranking.
Oh, that's a world ranking.
Yeah, it's actually
legit ranking.
And that's why they built
nukes and Biden calls
North Korea.
Kim Jong-il does not
call him back.
Whoa!
He has not returned the call for several months.
Left him on the red.
He was begging to hear from Kim Jong-un.
He was just not calling back.
I mean, what country can do that to America?
Seriously.
That Biden can call and they don't call him back?
Yeah.
Shit, I don't know.
Saudi Arabia is the only other one.
Really?
Yeah.
But it takes 30 seconds to make a phone call.
He's got to go up a mountain.
There's bad cell service.
That's a good point.
That is a really good point that you were just making.
Okay, this is the last one.
North Koreans believe Japan stole time from them during the 1919 occupation.
Kim Jong-il or Un?
Restored the time by moving it back a half an hour in 2015.
So...
Probably be on, right?
It is,
I think it's more legit.
There's a,
they keep changing history.
That's the thing
with North Korea.
Yeah.
They always say,
one day this is our enemy,
tomorrow is that enemy,
you know?
Yeah.
They just keep changing history,
but North Korea
has their own time zone.
They have their own calendar.
They have their own race. They have their own race.
I'm not an Asian.
I'm Kim Il Sung race.
That's what they told me.
I never seen the map of the world.
They don't tell me I'm Asian.
But can't you also be Asian?
I don't know what Asia is.
They don't show us the map.
You don't have a map.
Wow.
I don't know what the world looks like.
Let me tell you something.
You're Asian.
I know that for a fact.
But you could also be part of his race if he wants it.
That's what it says.
And then our calendar begins when Kim Il-sung was born.
So we don't know what Christ is.
We don't know what the, you know,
BC or AD, any historical facts,
which is the world begins when he was born.
That's how everything got created.
Wow.
That's wild. Oh oh because he's Christ
yes
he's a God
yeah
that's their own calendar
that's so interesting
that's day one
unbelievable
different planet
literally
do you remember
when you first met
a black guy
yeah
in South Korea
oh in South Korea
and I did not know
what black was
so what did you think
I'm so human
be honest be honest I have a friend South Korea. And I did not know what black was. So what did you think? I'm so human.
Be honest.
Be honest.
I have a friend in case it are two.
If you had a purse
you would have moved it.
No, that's the thing.
I literally had no idea
about race.
So when you see
a black guy for the first time
Did you ask someone?
Was it like the
you've heard of
what happened
with the Native Americans
when the boats came
and they couldn't see them?
I did not know what Native Americans were, right?
Like, I did not know what Jewish was.
I did not know anything of it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, literally, like my friend Casey, I just became friends.
And then several years of it, we became friends.
And he was like, oh, I'm a black.
I was like, what do you mean you're a black?
I'm black.
Did you not know? Like, I guess so. But when you looked at them, you was like, oh, I'm a black. He's like, what do you mean you're black? I'm black. Did you not know?
Like, I guess so.
But when you looked at them, you were like, you look different.
Not really.
Hold on one second.
Yeah.
Because the reason why we're asking, because I remember you saying the first time you saw
white people, you thought we all look the same.
You do.
Yeah.
We do.
Black people look all the same too.
I'm telling you.
That's what I'm telling you!
That's what I'm telling you!
I'm sorry.
That's it.
Indians look all the same to me.
We say the same about you!
They do, they do, they do, they do.
Now, Asian people, when you look at Asians, do you think you guys look the same?
Absolutely different.
No.
I mean, I'm the same too, by the way.
No, because I was—
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
No, because this blew my mind.
You said you had 60 different— 65 different nationalities in China,
and my first question was, how do you know?
Most of them are Han Chinese.
90% of them are Han Chinese.
And when you see a Han walking, can you see...
90% are Han. I wasn't all Han.
But what I'm saying is, when you see them, the way that they walk, do you know?
Yeah.
No, how they dress, I know.
You don't know how they dress?
Or how their features, face features are, I know.
Okay, so you can look at a Han and be like,
ooh, that's a Han right there.
That's Chinese.
Okay.
I know that's Chinese.
Okay, where is this Asian from right here?
This is great.
Yeah, we played this game before.
Where is this Asian from?
China, Thailand, or Vietnam?
China, Thailand, Vietnam.
Okay.
That region is...
He does not look Chinese.
Maybe Thailand or Vietnam.
What is that shirt he's wearing?
Is that mice?
Are you hungry?
Wait a minute.
Calm it down.
Calm down over here.
Final answer, Thailand?
I'm going to go with Vietnam.
Wow.
Vietnam?
China.
That guy was from China.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
We got a competition.
All right, Schultz, this one's for you.
This one's for you, Andrew.
Which one?
What do you think?
She's from, oh my gosh. Hold on, this is one argument. Okay, you go for it. This one's for you, Andrew. Which one? What do you think? She's from... Oh, my gosh.
Hold on.
This is one I know.
Okay, you go for it.
Okay.
Okay.
I got a guess.
Okay, I don't know what that thing she's wearing on her head is.
What is that?
I'm going to say...
I'm going to go Malaysia.
That was my guess.
Yeah.
Let me see.
That's for me.
I know Asia.
All right, so you're winning.
I know Asia.
Okay, what is this? Oh, I know this one So you're winning. You're winning. Okay.
What is this? He knows. India,
Nepal, or Maldives?
Now, is he... What is that
right here? What do you think he's talking about?
Gang signs? Oh.
Mugs in the crips.
India?
Mugs in the crips.
Okay, you're going India? Yeah. Okay, let's see it.
Alright, that's correct.
Oh, that's a tough one.. Okay, let's see it. All right, that's correct. All right.
Oh, that's a tough one.
That's North Korea.
I mean, I can see it.
That's North Korea.
That's how I looked like.
I had to have the haircut.
You think that's Korea?
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Good.
North Korea.
Oh, that's Mongolia.
All day.
Son, I did not know that one.
Oh, come on, dude.
Those cheekbones.
Are you ready for harder questions?
I am.
No, okay, back. Okay, back. So you're meeting blackbones. Are you ready for harder questions? I am. I am.
No, okay, back, okay, back.
So you're meeting black people,
you think they all look the same.
You meet white people, you think they all look the same.
But Asians you know look very distinct, very different.
Yeah, culturally very different.
Of course.
Our mannerisms are different.
Okay. Yeah.
Now, first time you met gay people.
What was that like?
So that's like, in my book I wrote it,
I gave a speech in San Francisco.
And at the end of the day the host came and gave me a hug.
And then I was so stirred, I was very conservative.
We don't have a hug in Korea, in South Korea.
Wait, you don't?
No, we don't.
You're just bowing it up?
We bow. We don't even do handshakes.
Other genders. Very conservative.
Really? Oh sorry, I gave you a hug when I walked in.
I love that. But he said, don't worry darling, I'm gay. Really? Yeah. Oh, sorry. I gave you a hug when I walked in. I love that. But he's like,
don't worry, darling.
I'm gay.
I didn't know what that was.
So I go to my hotel
that night
and I Googled gay.
Oh.
I've done that before.
The images section
was probably crazy for you.
Did you do videos?
No, just definition of gay.
Oh, just definition.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I think that was very,
it took some time for me to understand. To understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that was very, it took some time for me to understand.
To understand.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we don't have a vocabulary
gay in North Korea.
Oh, really?
Yeah, we don't have.
So what do you call Kim Jong-un?
Because I like,
you know how when Rodman comes over
and like they...
Yeah, isn't Kim Jong-un gay?
No, he's very straight.
But he has all these like
basketball players come over.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's a friend.
He loves party.
He loves basketball.
That's where he grew up.
I mean, if you could fly anyone around the world
to North Korea to hang out with you,
he's going to be a big, strong guy.
Yeah.
You don't think?
Maybe.
I don't know.
It doesn't matter.
I'm just saying.
Maybe it's possible, you know? I heard his brother is gay.
Oh, runs in the family.
Kim Jong-chul is definitely gay.
Oh, for sure, we know that.
But what about Kim Jong-un?
They're all gay.
He's very ladies' man.
You think so?
He has a lot of mistresses and keep popping.
And yeah, he's very into ladies.
Okay.
As far as I know, yeah.
Okay.
But his brother's definitely gay. Maybe that was a matching with his brother.
Wait, is the brother the one that he killed?
No, no, no, no.
That's a different brother from different wife.
Oh.
Kim Jong-il had four wives, main wives,
not including all these other harems.
Oh, wow.
So from four wives to Kim Jong-il coming from third wife.
Oh.
The first wife, the legit first son,
that's the one who got killed in Malaysia,
because he had the actual legit authority
to take the throne.
Oh, so he had to get rid of the authority
to protect himself.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
But his son is in America.
His son is here?
Yeah, America, CIA went and rescued him.
When Kim Jong Un.
So we have Kim Jong Un's son.
Kim Jong Nam's son.
Kim Jong Nam's son.
The grandson of Kim Il Sung, the first son we have in America.
Have Koreans thought about mixing it up with the Kim name a little bit?
South Koreans or North Koreans?
Both.
It's a lot of Kim, right?
Most of us Kims, yeah.
Yeah, it's a lot of Kim.
Why is that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I guess you just don't have as creative.
I don't know.
Why is that?
I don't know.
Now, I do have to ask a question.
You are married, you had a kid, right?
And then you got divorced.
Now, what is more difficult?
North Korea or marriage?
Well, I mean.
You're talking to married guys here.
I'm married, I forgot my ring.
Yeah.
Freedom. Marriage is beautiful. I mean, I mean. You're talking to married guys here. I'm married. I forgot my ring. Yeah. Freedom.
Marriage is beautiful.
I mean, I love marriage.
Yeah, I believe in marriage.
I believe in family, so.
But it's tough, too.
It can be tough.
It can be tough.
Oh, nothing compared to North Korea.
Seriously.
I mean, you can compare it.
There's been fights that I've been in with my wife.
You know what I mean?
Like, we've been arguing.
Yeah.
And in that moment, I'm like, ah.
Yeah. You in that moment, I'm like, ah. Yeah.
You know?
Ooh.
I'd have like a rat burrito.
Instead of doing this, you know?
Well, you have freedom to divorce.
In North Korea,
you have no freedom to divorce.
That's true.
That's a good point.
And if you get me,
I use that freedom already.
Yeah, right, bro.
Don't leave me hanging.
You know what I'm saying?
Okay.
So, wait a minute.
Now, did your...
Hold on.
Now, did your ex...
Now, was he a little bit upset
that you were being so free?
Because he probably was like,
I got this one.
You know, she's not going anywhere.
He's an American bastard.
He's a white American.
He's a softie.
He's a softie.
Very self-guilty. He doesn't softie. He's a softie.
Very self-guilty.
He's insecure about how good they are.
Oh, really?
I mean, white people have the guilt, right?
Always feel bad.
Yeah, you white people.
You white people with your guilt, bro.
These white people are sad.
You guys are, okay, you guys are weird.
We're the weird, we're a little bit weird.
So he just felt bad all the time?
He was just guilty, like?
No, no, no, he's a great guy. Yeah. Just, uh... A little bit weird. So he just felt bad all the time? He was just guilty? No, no, no. He's a great guy.
Just...
A little weird looking.
Exactly.
A little bit.
Just a little bit.
No, no, no.
He's an amazing man for my son.
So I'm very grateful for him.
And you guys still have a good relationship?
Very amicable.
Okay, and then now you're engaged again?
I'm engaged again.
I'm holding up marriage.
Hot item on the street.
Now, who's this guy?
Who's this guy?
What is dating like?
We need to learn about these guys.
We have to help you with these decisions.
We have to protect you.
You're a heavy queen.
So we have to make sure that you're with the right guy.
You like the coffee with some heavy queen.
No,
I met him on Bumble.
On Bumble? Yeah, so
during the pandemic in Chicago,
I couldn't go anywhere. So my gay
friend, who's my stepbrother, said, like,
darling, you need to go get laid. Wait, your gay friend
is your stepbrother? Yeah.
How does that, I'm doing the math.
Yeah, so he wanted to adopt me,
but I was too big, so he couldn't adopt me. So we became like stepsisters, stepbrothers. So see, I'm not a math. Yeah, so he wanted to adopt me, but I was too big, so he couldn't adopt me.
So we became like stepsisters, stepbrothers.
So see, I'm not a bigot.
They keep saying I'm a right-wing and conservative.
I'm like, I'm liberal, classical liberal.
Like, seriously.
100%.
I can divorce.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Women's rights.
I'm not that conservative.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, this is good.
So what does your Bumble account look like?
Yeah, how come you're not on Raya?
Lots of questions.
I was on Raya.
Okay.
But you guys were so like creative types.
Yeah, he was on Raya.
And I'm very like classical.
I like more like conservative men.
Right.
I like the men who ask me out formally.
Like I did not know going to dinner means date.
Oh, what did you think it was?
Yeah, and then they try to give me a kiss like what the heck are you doing like I was so surprised
Because we were just when I think I can I kiss you know
So you've met on a dating app no no just generally like you meet people at the conference You knew this was a date? No, I didn't. Hold on, hold on, hold on. This is actually really fun.
So you met on a dating app.
No, no, no. Just generally, like, you meet people at the conference.
They say, oh, do you want to grab some dinner sometime?
Like, okay, that's a good idea.
We grab a dinner, and they say, can I kiss you at the end of the date?
Yes.
And I did not know dinner meant a date in America.
Now, here's a question.
Have you ever gone on a few dates with a guy, and he didn't kiss you,
and then you started to get angry,
and you had to become the empowered woman that you are,
and you had to go get that?
No.
Luckily, this was my first guy from the first person I met on Bumble.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Wow.
And then other times when I was on app,
they were like, is this really on me, Park?
She's married.
You got to be, like, lying.
You cannot do that. I was like, yeah, they were like, is this really Yumi Park? She's married. You got to be lying. You cannot do that.
I was like, yeah, I got divorced, but Wikipedia, I think, didn't update it as
fast as they could.
People thought I was faking it.
So they were like, you cannot do that.
You cannot lie about your identity.
They don't believe you for anything.
You don't believe people at all here.
Okay, so you go on a date with your new
fiancé. Where does he take you
for the date?
We went to Chicago during the pandemic in the minus 27 Celsius.
Wait, on a date you went there?
No, because everything looked closed.
Yeah.
And then guys was like, do you want to come to my place?
Like, hell no.
I'm not going to meet you.
It was like, everything's closed.
Yeah.
So like, then let's meet outside the tent in the snowy, freezing Chicago.
So, we met there.
And then he found warmer, like, restaurant with tents up outside because of the pandemic.
Everything closed.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, we met at the restaurant.
Now, is it difficult for a guy to complain about his life to you?
Like, you know, I love complaining about my life to my wife.
Ah, today was difficult. You know what I mean? The bill was late. You know what I mean about my life to my wife today was difficult
you know what I mean
the bill was late
you know what I mean
I stubbed my toe
does the guy
feel uncomfortable
complaining to you
after what
you know
you've been through
so my current
fiance's complaint
is I'm too soft
on men somehow
you are too soft
yeah I'm too sympathetic
to men
really
so he's not used
to like women
keep sympathizing.
Look at the actual data men are struggling.
Women, the modern economy, modern society is designed for women than men, actually.
It's better for girls graduating from school, getting an office job, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm worried as a mother of a son, like, it's going to be harder for him.
And I think it's the first time he met somebody who's worrying about men's hardship
in life.
Oh, wow.
So I think
I'm very sympathetic.
Why do you think
men are struggling?
I think they're genetically,
I mean,
nothing's wrong with,
even I observe my son,
like,
his communication skills
is not as developed
as a girl's.
The speed is different,
the maturity is different,
his Wi-Fi motor skills
is different,
the ability to sit down and focus is not as good as girls.
It takes a while for them to mature up.
Yeah.
And they have different, I mean, hormones.
Men and women are different.
I don't know why this is such a big opinion in America right now.
But culturally, why do you think that there's a struggle for young men?
It does seem like that's a part of a conversation right now that a lot of people are having.
And some people are reluctant to have.
So this is funny.
I had a previous agent and they were asking me,
why don't you write a book about how hard it is to be a woman?
How horrible the world is that run by men?
And I'm like, my father died from this dictatorship.
Men are equally more affected by these hardships.
Yeah.
Not just women.
Yeah.
It's not that men are a problem, but I think current somehow narrative in America is that men are evil.
They are toxic.
Because of the politicians are men, we have war, we have poverty, we have inequality.
Yeah.
So it's hard when the world is literally against you.
Yeah. You know, they keep telling the world is literally against you. Yeah.
You know, they keep telling you
everything about you is toxic.
Yeah.
I mean, how can you be sane even?
Yeah, I think a lot of times what happens is that,
you know, we see toxicity exist within power structures
and then we look for a blame,
which are the people that are in power.
And if the people in power look a certain way
or they're of one gender,
we ascribe that blame to that gender, to their looks.
Yeah, that's a definition of racism and, I mean,
trust you.
Sure, 100%.
And they are doing that, literally, to men.
That's so sad.
And I think that we would probably do it to women
if women were in power,
and if it was white women.
These days, I mean, you guys cannot, like,
in South Korea, the women, like, they office, like,
okay, we don't have a good environment
for us to cry and be emotional about things.
So if the guy said,
if I look at your eyes, it's too confrontational.
If I look at your chest, it's like,
I'm sexually harassing you.
You did look at my chest just right there.
Okay, I mean, you're a man.
I can do that.
I haven't looked at your chest one time.
I just want to say.
For guys, it's like walking on an eye shadow.
Like, anything they do can be a problem.
So I think we are less forgiving to men, especially white men.
It's so sad.
My son, he's not going to ever be, nobody's going to be compassionate to him
because he's half Asian, half white.
It's so screwed.
Do you think that he'll get half compassion?
Do you think there'll be some compassion for him being Asian?
They say that Colombia is talking about the real oppression,
how people are still enslaved, that slavery never ended.
And yes, of course, black lives matter, and every lives matter.
I hope you don't mind saying that.
But I don't know.
I'm so sorry.
You got the pen.
Yeah, North Korean lives matter.
You know what I mean?
She's talking about old lives.
But they say that you don't know oppression because you're a white-passing person.
To your kid, they would say that.
To me.
Oh, to you.
Yeah, they say I don't know.
I don't think you're white-passing, I gotta be honest.
That's why people keep adding shading and bronzes to make me look more tan, actually.
I'm sorry, like, darker is better.
And look at you, I'm like...
Seriously, I was like... Seriously.
I was robbed two years ago in Chicago.
Yeah, yeah.
During the BLM protests.
I got robbed by several black women.
And as you can see, I'm like below 80 pounds.
I'm much smaller than these girls.
Yeah, now.
I was still very small.
They punched me.
They took my wallet out of me.
Whoa.
In front of my son.
And then I was trying to call police on them.
Obviously, anybody do when they get robbed.
Yeah.
People on the street circle me
and then screaming at me that I'm a racist.
Because I'm going to call the cops on these thieves.
You did say they all look the same to you,
so maybe you just got the wrong person.
I mean, this lady punched me.
Like, I had a video of her.
You were only looking out of one eye at that point.
On my chest, my head is swollen.
Seriously.
Oh, maybe they're swollen still.
Exactly.
She hasn't gone down yet.
See, even she wanted them too.
That's the thing.
That is the thing.
That is, are we victim blaming? We might be victim blaming. Yeah. That's the thing. That is the thing. That is, are we victim blaming?
We might be victim blaming.
Yeah.
That's really what it is.
Okay, so those black women were trying to steal your heavies.
They did.
I mean, yeah, they punched it and then took my wallet away.
Oh, they took your wallet.
And then spent like 15 grand on the blooming there.
And then the police got the video footage of them using my credit card.
So we caught it.
So I processed, I mean, I was doing a goal with the process.
You know, obviously, I felt bad for her,
but it was almost like, you know,
you cannot commit a crime.
There's an actual, it's just.
Yeah, why would you feel bad for the person
who's just punching you.
Also, 15 grand at Bloomingdale's is not food.
But then she was, she actually had 15 charges already.
Oh, wow.
And then people saying there was actual,
like a revenge crime is a huge thing in Chicago. They just come back out of prison and shoot you. Oh Oh wow. And then people saying there is like actual revenge crime is a huge thing in Chicago.
They just come back out of prison and shoot you.
Oh wow.
And the public figures like oh my god can I be in Chicago?
I'm so known already they can't find my location.
So you had to move?
Yeah.
Immediately.
And then you moved too.
And while she was in prison we got here.
And while she was in prison you came from New York?
Yeah she had a year and a half on her.
Because my charge was not even a thing.
She had way more crazy stuff she did.
So they dropped all my charges and just gave her one sentence.
That was like a year and a half.
Wow.
Now we got crazy people in New York, too.
I know.
America's kind of wild, right?
Chicago and New York is wild. The SF, LA, like Seattle, the big left cities is very wild.
You think they're more wild?
But what about down south?
It's also kind of crazy down south.
I was studying Bible in south, I remember. I mean, I was just
in Texas just like yesterday. Florida.
Florida is kind of crazy, right?
Yeah.
For like the most crazy American stories
they usually come from Florida. Really?
Yeah, the best stories.
Mark is from Florida.
It's like the North Korea.
It's the North Korea of America in a lot of ways.
In a lot of ways, yeah.
Very dangerous. Really?
Basically, there's just a lot of headlines that will come out
of Florida where it's like, Florida man
does crazy thing, you know, kills an alligator
with his teeth, and then it will make the headlines
and everyone looks at Florida and says that we're all stupid
even though we're not. You guys are the freest state
right now. I mean, I want to move to Florida. That's my dream state.
Thank you. Is it really? Yeah, I cannot move because of the custody issue.
Because the what? My ex does not want to move. Oh, the custody. We have 50-50 share of custody.
That doesn't feel very free. That feels restricted. No, I mean. What do we do?
I think your child, Your son is a socialist.
A dictator.
Your son's a communist.
Does it make you understand dictators a little bit when you have a situation like this?
Like, now you have the rule of law,
so now you're restricted,
but if you were a dictator,
you could be like,
we're going to Florida.
Yeah, I mean, this is a good law.
It's a good law,
but at the same time,
you got to live here.
It's not that bad compared to, I mean,
I mean, you guys are here.
We went to Florida
too. We were there for like four months.
It was great. It was fantastic.
It was a lot of fun.
It's a great place.
Not a lot of Asians, to be honest with you.
That's true. There's almost no Asians
in Florida. Which part of it? Miami. All of it. A lot of Asians, to be honest with you. That's true. There's almost no Asians in Florida.
Which part of it?
Miami.
Miami's not a lot.
A lot of Hispanic, I guess.
The old Cuban speaking.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Some would say too many.
No, no.
I have a question.
In North Korea, do they drink alcohol?
They do, but it's like homemade.
They make their own. Oh, really?
Yeah, it's like very strong.
And so when you come to America, do you drink alcohol now?
I started drinking when I was going through divorce.
That's a good time to start.
I did not drink until that point,
so I became very into wine now.
You like the wine?
Yeah, yeah.
What about things like weed?
Like a lot of people in America smoke weed,
but I'm sure in North Korea it's not common.
Would that be interesting?
Would you try that?
So I'm so sorry, but even if my son watches, it's okay.
He's five.
He's not going to.
But these that I saw the once doesn't do anything.
The weed didn't affect you at all?
The first time, it doesn't do it.
Really?
Yeah, you got to hit it again.
I had a friend who's Singaporean.
Do you know Melissa Chen?
Yes, on Twitter.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, so she and I are friends.
And she told me, like, this MDMA, LSD, or weed.
Have you tried that?
No, she's like, that doesn't do anything to her.
So I tried the weed.
It doesn't do anything.
But I did MDMA therapy.
Oh, I did something.
Therapy.
It's a therapy.
I was your therapy.
Me too.
I did a video therapist, actually.
Okay, and it's awesome, isn't it?
It's amazing.
It's great.
Yeah.
We should do, we should all do something.
Wait, what happened?
Yeah, yeah, break it down.
I mean, I met my father again.
Wow.
Like, yeah, he came back and explained everything to me.
Wow.
It was amazing.
From MDMA?
Well, this is...
To psilocybin, they mix it. Oh, they mix the MDMA? Well this is...
To psilocybin, they mix it.
Oh, they mix the MDMA and mushrooms.
Plus psilocybin.
Psilocybin is from anybody watching at home,
that's mushrooms.
So you were using mushrooms and the MDMA.
And therapy.
And together, you met your dad again.
Yeah.
Did he say anything to you?
I think it's a lot of pain that I that I had a guilt like I'm sorry I feel guilty
that I survived yeah for sure survivor's guilt is common yeah so I feel just so bad and he's like
no I I made all this for you yeah this is what I want for you to have so he's he's excited he's
happy yeah he was very happy for me.
Very proud of you.
And was there a little part of him that was like,
this is great, but why are you using drugs?
Naughty, naughty, naughty.
My daughter's a drug addict now.
These Americans and their therapy.
Exactly, those gays ruined me.
That's what happens.
You made friends with gays,
now you're doing Molly and Ecstasy and Mushrooms.
This is why you can't go to San Francisco.
Yeah, you can't.
That's where I did it.
Now, the gays do have the most fun
with the drugs and everything.
Oh, they do?
You're in good hands with them.
Okay.
Don't take drugs with just straight guys.
No, okay, yeah.
If a gay guy gives you drugs, you take it.
They're the best guy there was. I always take drugs from gay guys. Now, the next day. If a gay guy gives you drugs, you take it. They're the best guy there was.
I always take drugs from gay guys.
Now, the next day, my ass hurts a little.
Okay.
Like,
you have a diarrhea?
No, no, it was a joke
about how gay guys have sex.
Oh.
Oh, you don't know that? She doesn't know that part yet.
No, baby.
Not in the mouth.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, no, and when, you know.
Okay.
I heard you mention on Rogan about Burning Man.
Did you go yet?
No, I haven't.
Are you going to?
I don't know if I really need to say that much
about freedom.
It's like.
This is...
No, we go, we go.
You guys go?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And I would recommend that you go.
We do?
Yeah, there's only ten rules.
They're not even rules, they're principles.
And then outside of that, you just express yourself in whatever way you want to express yourself.
Yeah.
And people have to include you radically.
Radical expression, I heard.
Radical expression and radical inclusion.
Inclusion, yeah. So they expression, I heard. Radical expression and radical inclusion. Inclusion, yeah.
So they have to include you.
It sounded a bit like communism, like collectively
we all take care of each other.
One more time.
Sounded like communism.
One more time.
It's okay.
Everybody had things to bring to each other
and taking care of each other.
And I was like, I'm just sick of the collectiv taking care of each other. Yeah, communism.
And I was like, I'm just sick of the collectivism.
Well, no, it is communism.
That's the beauty.
It is.
But communism only works for one week when everybody's on drugs.
Ah, under drugs it works.
Yeah. We can go against our human nature.
When everybody's rich and then they're on drugs, we can be nice to each other for seven days.
Right.
And then it falls apart.
Right.
But for those seven days,
you experience the euphoria of what communism could be.
On drugs.
On drugs.
Yeah.
But if you were communist, you would do the drugs, right?
Who's going to work?
Who's going to make?
There's nobody works under communism.
That's why we're starving.
Exactly.
Yes.
This is the problem.
But for seven days, it is kind of cool.
So you can go see the idea behind these horrible totalitarian dictatorships if you want to experience it.
Oh, okay.
And then after that, you're charged up and you're really excited.
Okay.
And you can bring whatever you want.
Bring whatever I want.
What would your gift be?
My gift be? What would your gift be? My gift be...
What would your gift to the playa?
Because everybody has to bring a gift to the playa.
There's two of them.
Some grasshopper fries.
I love our throstens.
Listen, honestly, I would show up to your grasshopper fry cart and have some grasshopper fries.
I would eat insects 100%.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I'm not against the insects thing.
The rats to me is just a little bit crazy.
Too much.
For me, it's a little bit too much.
Yeah.
Don't you agree?
No, I think it's not that bad.
Okay, is there anything that Americans eat that you're like,
ugh, what's wrong with these people?
Blue cheese.
Blue cheese.
I agree.
Oh, my gosh.
This smells like shit.
It does.
It does smell like shit.
I was like,
why would you eat this voluntarily?
It's the French.
They went too far.
Oh, that's the French stuff.
Liberté.
Yeah, too much liberty.
It's too much liberty.
I just can't do the bad cheese, yeah.
There's limits to liberty, right?
I love brie.
Brie is perfect.
Brie is enough,
but you go past it.
Oh, no way, yeah. I'm with you. I'm so with you. But that's the French. It's like liberty, right? I love Brie. Brie is perfect. Brie is enough, but you go past it. Oh, no way, yeah.
I'm with you.
I'm so with you.
But that's the French.
It's like everybody agrees.
They're like, a woman becomes a woman at 18,
and then the French are like, well, what about 14?
And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, too far.
They always wish.
The other one is too old or too young.
It's just too much.
Too old, too young.
Yeah, it's crazy.
So then maybe the French are like,
what happens when freedom
is too free. Yeah.
I can see that. Right? Yeah.
Alright guys, we're going to take a break for a second because listen.
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Do you have a pet?
Did you get like a dog or a cat when you came to America?
She divorced him.
She got the divorce.
She's not good.
She divorced the man.
Okay?
They're in a custody problem.
Similar.
Okay?
You got yourself your very own white man.
That is a fucking accomplishment.
It is.
It is in North Korea
that that's by like
a thousand pieces.
Really?
Yeah.
If you marry a white man?
You can't.
I mean,
there's no white man there.
But international marriages. Well, Otto Wurmbier or whatever, wasn't he? You can't. I mean, there's no white man there. But international marriages.
Well, Otto Wurmbier or whatever, wasn't he?
He got killed.
He got tortured.
His whole teeth got rearranged.
Oh, my goodness.
You don't want to marry that guy.
Electrifying him.
They were torturing him.
Oh, shit.
Okay, so back to you, though.
So despite all of that, you went after and you hooked a white, a great white, as they call him.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Did you?
I like people with sleeves.
I'm not into white as well.
I call my fiance Iranian.
Oh.
I thought it was Arab.
So I was like, are you Arab?
He's like, no, I'm not.
That's right.
The Iranians, they don't,
they believe that they're from the Caucasus Mountains.
Yeah, so I'm very liberal when it comes to.
Did you date any Koreans before you...
I did not.
You never dated Koreans?
Not on Wishes, I guess.
I did not date Koreans.
Hold on, wait, why, why, why, why?
I've never dated one.
Really?
I'm just...
I'm just sorry, but it just feels like I'm with my own...
Say it, say it.
No, but...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I don't care.
I don't care. Is it true No, but... Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. I like hair. I like hair.
Yeah, I like it, but...
Is it true what they say about North Korean men?
I heard they're really hung.
I don't know.
I've never seen one.
Really? Never?
I was 13.
We don't have a sex education in school.
We don't know what sex is.
We don't have a vocabulary for it.
Oh, you were talking about their penis sizes out?
Yeah, I heard North Korean men... And there's no North Korean porn. You don't know what sex is. You don't have a vocabulary for it. Oh, you were talking about their penis sizes out?
I heard North Korean men. And there's no North Korean porn.
How do you watch what North Korean men look like?
Yeah, wait.
But then you were in South Korea.
I never dated once.
I don't know.
You didn't do anything like that?
No.
Now, are there certain South Korean dudes that are coming at you?
Yeah, I was in the university in South Korea.
And were they hitting on you nonstop?
What did they say?
What did they say? Well, they're very sweet. I'm always in the university in South Korea. And were they hitting on you nonstop? What did they say? What did they say?
Well, they're very sweet.
I'm always in the library, so they make math questions.
I know the answer to this math.
They hit on you with math questions?
I don't know what your number might be.
Wait a minute, that's game like that?
Yeah.
I was studying criminal justice, the law and criminal laws.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, my God. So they came up with some math questions. Yeah, in the library. And they were like, nah, the law and criminal laws. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my God.
So they came up with some math questions.
Yeah, in the library.
And they were like, nah, nah, I'm good.
Not having it at all.
Never got attracted.
But then the Iranian, he really, he knew how to.
Persians have game.
Persians, yeah.
I think Americans, like, when they came, just like, I don't know.
I think they keep saying, like, you know, that I just, if you don't hear about these stereotypes, you don't know, I think they keep saying that if you don't hear about these stereotypes,
you don't know them.
So there's no any preconception in you.
It's very great thing.
You can just start like everything is fresh.
You learn about for the first time, I did not know Iran was not Arab.
I thought they were all Muslims.
And he's like, no, he eats pork.
What is he, Christian?
Have you ever dated a black guy? Nobody came up. or like Muslims, you know. And he's like, no, he eats pork. Oh, interesting. What is he, Christian?
Have you ever dated a black guy?
Nobody came up.
I don't know.
I think maybe I'm not their type or something.
Wait a minute.
You never got hit on by a black guy?
No.
Well, you got hit on by a black woman,
but that's a very different.
It's not different.
So you never had a black guy approach you at all?
No.
Just white guys and Asians?
A lot of Jews.
And then one Iranian?
A lot of Jews.
Jews love it, huh?
Why is that?
Why is that?
Similar history.
They do.
I think there's like a connectivity right there.
Oh, maybe we went through Holocaust.
Like if we are going to know the Holocaust,
they went through actual Holocaust.
Exactly.
You felt it.
You also have the pressure, the family pressure.
Family and academia.
The academia, study, study.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But you never got with the Jewish guy, though.
You never, you don't date a Jewish guy.
I had the first boyfriend that was Jew, who was a Russian Jew, by the way.
Oh.
I know.
You went back to the Soviets.
Yeah.
It was, like, very conservative.
Very conservative. Like, libertarian. Like, not, like, a Christian conservative. It was like very conservative. Very conservative.
Like libertarian.
Like not like a Christian conservative.
Like libertarian.
Libertarian.
So he believed in the freedom.
Free market,
individual liberty,
constitution,
like that.
Yeah.
Don't tax me.
Yeah.
No tax.
He was rich.
Government is evil.
No, it was not.
He wanted to be.
The government isn't that evil.
It's just they want a lot of money.
I think that's more the philosophy, right?
Very greedy, yeah.
Because if the government was the exact same, but they wanted no money,
I think there's a lot of libertarians who'd be like,
yeah, this government's fine.
Everything's working out.
No, those don't.
Do you know Mike Malice?
They don't believe in borders.
I love him.
But Mike is, I love Mike.
I love him too.
But he believes in chaos.
Exactly. Anarchist. Anarchist. Literally, no too. But he believes in chaos. Exactly.
Anarchist.
Anarchist.
Literally, no border, no military, no government.
I'm like, I don't want to be in that country.
Whatever you're saying.
Neither does he.
That's my theory.
It's easy to say that, but then when it happens, it's like, oh, fuck.
You know what I mean?
Because he's first.
And I'm the one who's going to be raped.
Well, no.
That's no more.
We're not letting that happen anymore.
So we need a government.
We like the government protecting from that.
Right. Okay?
And your strong Iranian husband to be in the very near future.
Not very near future, yeah.
Oh.
And becoming American.
Yeah.
No.
Yeah.
You are really becoming an American woman.
Yeah, they say average women gets married around 34, 35 in New York.
I was married at 22, and I was 22 when I got married.
But you're like Korean 22, so that's like 44 or something.
Isn't the age different?
Yeah, the math doesn't matter.
Remember you said like you're born and then you turn?
Yeah, so two years is different.
So I'm 29.
In Korea? In American age. Oh So I'm 29. In Korea.
In American age.
Oh, so you're 31 in Korea.
Yeah.
How old are you?
I'm 39.
So you're 41 in Korea.
Damn.
Damn.
You're in your 40s.
I'm in my 40s.
You're a wash.
I'm killing it right now, dude.
Damn.
I am killing it right now.
Okay, this is very, this is very interesting.
I like this part of your life where you're enjoying yourself.
You're out there dating.
Do you get to travel much, like, in America and around the world?
Not as much around the world now, but now I'm on the book tour.
So I'm, like, literally going everywhere in America.
Are you scared to leave the country?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I cannot go to countries like Malaysia.
Because they'll come after you.
Or, like, Colombia, like, Mexico, Brazil.
Like, we're, it is so, $500 can hide a hitman so easy and you think that North Korea would
hire the hitman and take you out yeah they all have embers is there oh that's
how they kill the Kim Jong them they just they hire these girls and told them
you're like shooting all like Frank video put them in a VX nervous like we
tours Hammond is quite a new up wait. They're doing a what video?
A prank video? A prank video.
A prank video, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.
You are taking the prank video. Yeah.
So why don't you go up that man and rub his face?
It's going to be really funny in the video.
And then they just go do it? Yeah.
Oh, my God. That's how he got died.
So you can't go anywhere. Yeah.
Probably America's fine. America's
good. Yeah, maybe the UK is okay.
But they killed some in the UK. Remember the
Olikark? Yeah, the Russian guy.
The Russian one, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true.
Yeah. I think America.
This is a great country. I think this is where you stay.
Yeah, this is where I get buried eventually.
A hundred percent. Not in a long time.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But if you did go to other countries,
you think that you could, let's say you went to Asia,
do you think you could easily pretend you weren't you?
Like, could you disguise yourself there?
No, I mean, they have the list in the government.
China, they have the list in my name in the blacklist.
Yeah.
So I cannot even enter.
I mean.
Oh, you can't even go into China?
Yeah, if they do let me in, they're going to kidnap me.
That's what they do.
They send them back to North Korean Asians.
They have North Korean agents everywhere in China.
And what if you went to South Korea again?
South Korea, they send a lot of assassins with like poisons and guns.
They like shoot them in their apartments.
They were the one told me like, I'm not safe.
Wow.
Their intelligence is South Korea.
Really? So they were like, yo, you got to get out of here.
No, they're all like, they say We can put you with three detectives.
Going to be with you 24-7.
Wow.
Three guys with me all the time.
I was like, I didn't escape for this.
Did you know any, like, defense?
Do you know taekwondo is the Korean martial art?
But, like, do you know anything to protect yourself?
Do you have a gun?
I do yoga.
Yeah, you can try that.
You can try that.
That's Asian?
That's Asian?
None of those girls robbed you.
Yeah, that's why they robbed you.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Yeah, I would like to have a gun, but I have a son.
So it's in New York City.
Our apartments are so small.
So I want to have, like, a home where, like, there's a basement.
Florida.
Yeah, you go to Florida or Texas, then you can get a gun.
And then your husband will do whatever you want.
Because you know that that's also something that happens with a gun.
Really?
Yeah.
Have you not been to like a shooting range or anything?
I've been.
I loved it.
Oh, you shot a gun?
Yeah.
How was it?
Very, very cool.
Yeah, it was crazy, right?
I feel so powerful.
Do you?
I mean, it's an equalizer.
I mean, you and I, like, if we are fighting, we are equal if we have the gun in our hands.
Yes!
Our size doesn't matter anymore.
That's a good point.
Oh, so it's an equalizer.
Absolutely.
It's so empowering.
That's the idea of America.
Yeah, for someone like me, like, so small,
I feel so powerful, yeah.
Do you think in order to have, like,
real freedom or freedom of speech, for example,
you also need to have something to protect that speech?
Someone to protect it. Something to protect it. You need to have something to protect that speech? Someone to protect.
Something to protect it.
You need guns.
Yeah, absolutely.
Right?
Imagine if North Koreans
had guns.
We're not going to let
them take my father
like that.
I'm going to shoot them.
Right in their fucking head.
Yeah, if they come
get three generations
of my family,
I'm going to shoot them
back even if I get killed.
No country can do that
to their own citizens
if they have the right
to defend themselves.
Damn right. So it's a good idea that we have some guns. Of own citizens if they have the right to defend themselves.
Damn right. So it's a good idea that we have some guns.
Of course we should absolutely have the guns.
100%.
That's the only way we can stay free.
That's facts. I agree.
Now a lot of people say, they'll be like, but we couldn't overthrow our government because our government has way better guns.
They have way, the military is too strong.
Are they going to kill us all?
Are they going to kill us? I mean, where is the nation to rule?
Who to dictate?
What's the point of they bomb everybody in their country?
I would think you kill enough people that the people who have guns are like,
all right, well, you know what?
Everybody I see is still losing, so I'm just going to put my guns down.
No, if they come for your wife, your children, your parents,
they're going to kill them.
You're going to kill you.
I mean, you're going to shoot them back.
Right.
I think it also depends how you and your wife are doing that day. You know what to kill you. I mean, you're going to shoot them back. Right. I think it also depends, like,
how you and your wife are doing that day.
Like, you know what I mean?
Yeah, there's a lot of things.
It's more of like...
Let me need some therapy.
My trauma.
I have to talk about my trauma.
I'm so curious.
You always talk about movies.
Like, you talked about, like, Titanic
and, like, different movies.
What was the first movie you came to America
and you saw in a movie theater?
Do you remember?
Interview.
The interview Sonya about
Killing Kim Jong-un.
That was the first movie you saw?
Yeah, December 24th that I came
in the independent movie theater
they showed in Christmas Day.
Wow. That's so funny.
Did you like it?
I didn't get the jokes.
My English was so bad back then.
You could rewatch it.
So it was just traumatizing.
You're just watching this guy.
It was like, oh my God, it's a free country.
You can't even make fun of the dictator.
You can kill him in the movies and you're not going to get executed.
Wow.
That's freedom to me.
It's not about how dumb the movie is.
I don't get offended.
They had the freedom to make that movie.
If I don't like it, it's my thing.
But I just love that they had the ability and freedom to make your movie.
They could do that.
Now, I have a question.
You have this incredible story.
You're obviously very intelligent.
Do you ever get worried
that there are going to be certain people
that will see your story
and they'll be like,
hey, this looks really good for our ideology.
How do we pay her a bunch of money
or try to convince her to say things that we like?
Do you ever worry that people try to take advantage of you in that way?
I mean, to be honest, like they keep saying that I'm a CIA agent. I'm like,
when are they calling me? I can't, they don't call me. They don't call me somehow.
I got canceled by FBI Dallas to give a speech. Wait, wait, wait, what happened?
I was invited to speak last year at the FBI Dallas.
To talk about North Korea, educating their people.
And they just head of diversity calls me.
Your idea, political opinions are too bigoted.
We cannot have you.
Wow.
Dallas.
The head of diversity, FBI, cancels me because my political opinions.
Whoa.
Yeah.
And what was it about the opinions that they didn't like?
It was about that I was believing the Constitution,
that I believe in men and women are different,
there is a real science, genetics are real,
math is not racist, it's a real science,
and these kind of things.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, that's absolutely absurd.
Yeah.
Wow.
Wow.
I mean, that's absolutely absurd.
Yeah.
Wow.
Now, do you also think that people are hesitant in working with you because they don't want to upset China?
Yeah, that's very common.
So actually, my first book, I was with ICM partners.
My agent is very mainstream, and they gave me immediate training.
They said you cannot go on Fox, you cannot talk to New York Post.
They are the only people who talk to me right now.
But you only talk to New York Times and other journalists, right?
Because they were worried you were going to be radicalized by going on only right-wing platforms.
No, they didn't want me to be.
Nobody is going to forgive you if you are on Fox.
Fox people don't care I was on New York Times
criticizing Trump for meeting Kim Jong-un.
Like, that's the thing.
Like, who's more, like, inclusive?
That I've been on Time magazine and New York Times.
Once you go on Fox, then New York Times won't interview you.
Never gonna have you.
Gotcha.
So they basically say, hey, play the game.
Go with the left-leaning sites.
Go with the left-leaning publications.
Go with the mainstream.
Go with the mainstream,
and then eventually you can go to the right.
Okay.
No, no, no. They should never go to the right. then eventually you can go to the right okay no no no
they never go to the right
that's why I had to
leave my agent
oh my god
finding the narrator
for my audio book
yeah
I think we went through
at least 10 people
nobody wanted to do the book
because it's a conservative book
so we got somebody
what's the accent
American woman
okay
and no Asian
like Korean Americans
would not do it either
it was like just reading a book.
They don't want to put their name on it.
Interesting.
I kind of get Koreans, though.
They're worried why it would affect their career.
And also, that's a good point.
Like, yeah, I can sympathize for a Korean that wouldn't want to do it
because it might put them in danger, their family in danger.
But some, like, American white lady.
They don't want to do it.
Yeah.
So we've got a person under the pseudonym to do it.
Eventually,
after like begging people
to go around
to find the narrator.
Really?
Yeah.
And even I had to write this book.
They were asking me
to write a book
about how horrible
America is to black men.
Yeah.
How they are putting them
in the prison
that is similar
to North Korean prison camps.
Wow.
And I was like,
I think there are differences
between American prison and North Korean prison camp because North Korean prison camps don Wow. And I was like, I think there are differences between American prison
and North Korean prison camp
because North Korean prison camps
don't come back alive usually.
Take that out.
Prisons here,
we get up the ass.
That is true.
I would say that's worse.
Oh, up the ass.
He's talking about
gay sex happens in prison a lot.
Oh, in prison.
But you guys get fed though.
With dick. With dick. Because they get fed. Yeah, a lot of... But you guys get fed, though. With dick.
With dick.
They get fed, yeah.
They get a lot of meat, that's for sure.
Yeah, yeah.
They get stuffed.
They get stuffed.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, they're full.
But anyway, so it was very hard to fight this prison.
Get over your little prison race.
Nobody wants to hear about that.
They get fed, that's the point.
Yes, from both holes. Yeah. That's the point. Or no.
From both holes.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
No, but they do get fed,
and there are rights for prisoners in America.
100%. You see their family members.
There's actual judicial system
to decide what they have done or not.
It could be better.
I don't think she's saying it's good.
I think she's saying it's not really comparable.
100%.
Yeah, yeah.
We're teasing.
I think what you're saying is that there. I think she's saying it's not really comparable. A hundred percent. Yeah, yeah. We're teasing. We're teasing.
I think what you're saying is that there's levels to what's going on.
And then sometimes comparing things as if they're equal does a disservice to something that's far more severe.
Yeah.
Because there's awful treatment of black people in America.
And there's also horrendous treatment of North Korean people.
Yeah.
And those might be on different levels, but you only know what you know.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
So if black people in America have only experienced this, then they're going, hey, this is not fair, and I'm not getting what I'm promised by the Constitution.
And if the Constitution is promising these things, that's what I want.
Wow.
So they can be upset at that because the country may be failing them in that regard.
And there's a promise that the country has to uphold.
If we believe in this constitution,
we believe in the documents,
you better give me my fucking rights.
Whereas the treatment that people are experiencing
in North Korea is not against the constitution.
It's against our morality.
It's against our ethics.
It's against our humanity.
Yeah, it's a crime against humanity.
It's a crime against humanity.
By the UN. They said this is a modern day Holocaust. It's against our humanity. Yeah, it's a crime against humanity. It's a crime against humanity. By the UN.
They said this is modern-day Holocaust.
Of course, for sure.
So I guess what I'm saying is, like you said in North Korea, like when you were growing up, you only knew what was there.
You didn't know that there was a life outside of it.
And I think so many people also don't understand what's going on in North Korea because they're not there.
Our lives are small.
We know what we're experiencing.
Or in the bubble.
Exactly.
So I think it's like,
I think a lot of times people want to,
maybe they want to take your story
and they want to almost weaponize it
and be like, hey, everybody, shut up.
This is what it's like to be really bad.
But maybe we have room for both.
Maybe we have room to be like,
yeah, like, hey, let's make sure
that we understand and try to help these people in the best way that we can.
But let's also make sure that all our citizens are receiving the rights that they deserve.
Right.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Because I don't like when people try to do that with your stuff.
Because I feel like sometimes they kind of, they'll use it.
Right, right.
So I think that's the thing.
I mean, I could have been the darling of the left and complaining about
how hard it is to be a woman
and how hard a man is
or the men that I met
were rapists in China
and they were like
why just don't you stick with that
but the thing is
none of these people cared about
what actually was happening
to North Korean women in China
they just wanted to use you
as a tool
to shit on
to say the suffering of women
and that was it
and then when I was
ready to criticize Trump
about how he was
a legitimizing dictator.
Yeah.
That's when they only
want to talk about my story,
not about the enslavement
of my people in China.
Yeah.
It's almost like people
will use parts of your story
when it benefits them.
Yeah.
But they're not really
caring about
what you are going through
or your people.
Only Christians care.
I mean,
people are the only ones.
I'm so sorry.
They were, with all their flaws, with all their dogmas,
these older people came to China with their life.
They care.
They sent to prison for 10 years afterwards,
and some of them got killed and assassinated in China
with knives stabbing on them.
They literally cared about these North Korean people.
Nobody cares.
Risking their life and rescuing these people.
And all they're talking about is they care about lives
and they don't care.
All they do is talking.
You know, it's not just North Korea.
Like there's a large,
there's a very large Eastern African population
in Minnesota.
And they were originally lobbied
to be brought there by the Lutherans.
Yeah, so it's like these,
yeah, Christians have an amazing compassion
for people that are going through horrible times
and really do try to help and risk their lives.
They do.
I mean, there was that Christian guy that went to that island
we were talking about, and he was trying to, I guess,
spread the gospel to this remote.
Yeah, you saw that.
So it is really cool that you recognize that,
and I can see how you would definitely appreciate that
because you have this story that's so seductive
that people are going to want to use the parts that benefit them.
So how do you protect yourself from that?
How do you go, you just care about my story
because it helps your political position or your ideology?
How do you push people away who would just be using you
and then embrace people who really want to help? How do you push people away who would just be using you and then embrace people
who really want to help? How do you decipher that? I'm not very smart in that way. Like, I think,
I believe in humanity. Yeah. I think if I'm being genuine, I think they can see
beyond that. Yeah. You know, so I try not to discriminate. I try to talk to everybody. Yeah.
So if New York Times don't talk to me
I want to be there like if anybody wants to talk to me even communist organization want to talk to me
I want to go there. Yeah
Just they don't want me that's the only problem. Really? Yeah, of course not. And it's because they don't want to
They don't want to upset China. Is that kind of? Yeah, she said communist organizations don't want to talk to me.
Like that's the thing I mean all the American now the universities are under the Marxist ideology, right? Yeah, she said communist organizations, so I want to talk about that. I mean, all the American now, the
universities are under the Marxist ideology,
right? Yeah.
Is that true? I mean, when I went to college,
it was... Where did you go? I went to
the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Oh, wow. It's got to be... No?
It's not very woke?
It was just a lot of, like, parties.
Oh. Yeah.
So you didn't study very much.
No, not really.
Okay. What did you study?
Psychology.
That's a real science. Kinda, right?
Sorry. I love Dr. Peterson. I mean, that's a real science.
Take that, Dr. Peterson! You see that?
I studied a bullshit science, okay?
Oh my god, no. oh my god no psychology is a
certain degrees
of real science
and certain degrees
are too made up
right
yeah yeah yeah
exactly yes yes
no no no
but psychology I think
was very helpful for
it's not science
in terms of like math
but it's very helpful
in terms of like
understanding maybe
why I behave a certain way
why other people
behave a certain way
and that allows you
to operate in the world
gives you an advantage
with that you know like sometimes somebody's mean to you, and
it has nothing to do with you, it's what they're going through.
Right, exactly.
That kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, so, why did we get into, oh, yeah, I didn't feel like there was this, like, Marxist
ideology, but then again, I went to college fucking so long ago that maybe it's changed.
Clearly, I think that there is, there is, like, some i guess there is an i get how would
people say like an issue with wokeness yeah but uh i also feel like sometimes that is you know how
like the right and the left in america need enemies so that they have something to talk about every
day so i feel like they just select their enemies right that's so stupid i mean china is the enemy
why would you fight against China?
That's so stupid, yeah.
Yeah.
I really don't understand why they do that.
Well, why do you think?
Maybe it's easier if we fight wokeness
than fight China
because we know we're not going to do anything about China.
We know we want to get our fucking clothing made.
You know, we want our furniture.
We want our cheap stuff to buy on Amazon.
So we're not going to really do anything about China.
So why even bother to talk about it?
You know, they got the spy balloons
going all over the place.
What are we going to do?
Are we going to bomb them?
If we're not going to bomb them,
then maybe there's no reason to complain.
Yeah.
China's much more dangerous than wokeness.
That's true, but then woke ideology
is keep shielding this Chinese threat.
I think that's what is hard.
Shielding it, you're saying?
They're distracting us.
Yes.
The real enemy is not white men.
The real enemy is not capitalism.
Yes.
The real enemy is dictatorships.
That is Marxist, like, totalitarian ideology.
Yeah.
That is really a danger to humanity.
Yes.
But the woke ideology keep distracting us
to make us to believe that somehow
that American Constitution is racist.
That free market is a problem.
That capitalism is a problem.
I mean, the professor at Columbia said, all the problems that we have, the only solution to that is a communist revolution.
Your professor at Columbia said that?
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I mean, these people go run, like, I mean, work for Twitter, Facebook.
I mean, all the banks and big institutions, they become president, like Obama went to Columbia, right?
Yeah.
Like, they get brainwashed this way, and then how do we trust people to make the right decision?
Because they get certain biases that is so dangerous.
And you're saying that those biases that they'll develop and learn will then infiltrate our overall ideology.
That's your concern.
It has been.
You think it has.
My son's daycare sent me a message saying that—
He's binary?
None?
I don't know, but they said they do such a good job teaching him about equity.
Equality of outcomes.
That's a lot of bullshit.
There's no equality of outcomes. You and I can of bullshit. Like, there's no equality of outcomes.
You and I can never be the same
when we work for the same thing, right?
Like, we're different.
Yeah, yeah.
But they're teaching these young kids
who's two years or three years old,
little toddlers.
They teach them about Marxist ideology.
Yeah, it sounds extreme when it's put like that
because I don't think anybody's teaching a kid Marxism.
And they're like, hey, let's talk about Marx.
But they're teaching things that exist and are promoted within Marxism.
Like I have a friend of mine who his kid, he gave like two pieces of candy to one of his daughter and then gave one to his son.
And then the kid goes, wait, what's going on?
I want my other piece.
And he goes, why?
He goes, because it should be fair and equal.
Everything needs to be fair and equal.
And fair and equal is a good principle
to teach children, but the idea
that they felt like they could
demand it, and it was
their right to have it. The entitlement.
The entitlement. Sure. Yeah, you deserve
free healthcare. You deserve free education.
Yeah. You deserve free housing.
Yeah. Like universal income.
Right? In North Korea, they promised
everything free and nothing became free. They did not give us anything. Hmm. So in America, right? In North Korea, they promised everything free and nothing became free.
They did not give us anything.
So in America, these young kids, like, health care is a human right.
We should make it free.
So you're saying these are all good ideas, but you've seen them actually put into practice and it never lives up to the idea.
Why should somebody become a doctor and not getting paid and cure you for free?
Well, maybe they love curing.
But then they need to feed their family themselves.
Like, why they should do anything for free?
Like, how can anything be free in the world?
Right?
Like, do we get that cup for free?
Like, how do we make that for free?
You do this podcast for free?
That's right, but I'm trying to sell the books.
I don't like the brochure.
God bless capitalism.
Absolutely, I'm trying to sell the books,
but also I try to wake up people's minds,
so I don't, okay, if America goes down,
the only option left for me to escape to moon
without Elon Musk.
That's why he does not know me.
So I don't think I'm going to be there.
And the moon is going to be strict.
Mars is going to be strict.
That's going to be totalitarian.
There's not going to allow you to have freedom.
Yeah, the first generation, they have to build a nation.
They have no time to be like woke.
But can you imagine how strict it would be up there?
It's not even woke.
I've been into North Korea.
I can imagine it.
It would literally be North Korea.
It would be North Korea, but with food.
Because you can't go outside.
You can't do anything.
You do not want to go to Mars.
What I'm trying to say is you do not want to go to Mars.
Yeah.
Because everybody is dependent on everyone else.
If you just leave the door open, everybody dies.
That's why I'm fighting for America.
You need to fight for America.
I don't want to.
Imagine the world without America.
I would never want to be in it.
Yeah.
I want this country to be in it.
This is a beacon of hope for entire humanity.
But do you really think that, I think a lot of times
what happens is like, we see
this with children. Yeah. And we
see this with like teens, we see this with kids in their
20s. And then the second they get responsibility,
they literally convert
immediately. I've seen my friends who are
lifelong liberals, lifelong liberals,
like their entire lives. I've known
them their entire lives. Yeah. Liberals, liberals,
liberals, their wives, liberals.
This happened a couple weeks ago.
My friend's kid came home from school and said that he was gender fluid.
Yeah.
The kid is five years old.
My kid.
How does he even know the term gender fluid?
My friend was like, we're putting him in Catholic school.
Right.
We are doing that.
Immediately.
Yeah, we are sending him to Catholic school.
Immediately Catholic school.
Yeah, of course. Okay. Yeah. Now, that is, to me, the free market deciding. Right. We are doing that. Immediately. Yeah, we are sending them to Catholic school. Immediately Catholic school. Of course. Okay. Yeah. Now, that is, to me,
the free market deciding. Yeah. So you also have to have faith in the free market. Absolutely. I do.
So the free market is going to go, the parents are going to start going, whoa, whoa, what are
you teaching my kids? I'm taking my kids out of the school. Then the schools are going to start
to go, what the fuck is going on here? Why does nobody want to be here? Oh, maybe because we're
teaching children things
that they don't need to know at five years old.
Right?
Yeah.
So if we do have that total faith in the free market,
it should be applied to education.
It should be applied to ideology.
You know what I mean?
Like, if we really want freedom,
we got to let people get the information.
We have to let people have Marxist information.
Absolutely.
They should be Marxist.
I mean, I love them. That's the thing. The reason to let people have Marxist information. Absolutely. They should be Marxist. I mean, I love them.
That's the thing.
The reason why
I want the capitalism,
in capitalism,
Marxists thrive.
Like, you look at AOC
and Bernie Sanders.
But in socialism,
capitalists get executed.
Ah, so you're saying
there's much less tolerance.
So I want to be in a country
where we all can coexist
and keep debating
which idea is better
and finding the truth.
That's the thing, because if you have confidence in capitalism,
which I do, it's going to win.
I'm not that insecure. The Marxists are so
insecure, they cannot tolerate people who are
conservative and free market.
Because if you are so secure by your
ideology, why are you not afraid?
And why are you forcing us to think
the way you do? And why do you think that is?
Because they... Because communism is about passion. and like why forces think the way you do and why do you think that is because they because like
a comment is about
passion
it's not about
like logic
you know passionately
you think there should
be utopia
where everybody's
equal
nobody's suffering
like we're all
in a shalalaland
right
but
in the what
in the lalaland
like where like
just nobody's sick
he's the best In the what? La La Land. In La La Land, where just nobody's sick.
He's the best.
So I think that's a passionate ideology.
You've got to believe in it.
And also, it doesn't teach you any tolerance.
Yeah.
Right?
You cannot call it capitalism.
Yeah.
It is almost a beautiful thing to commit yourself to,
which is this idea that we're going to help everyone
and everybody's going to get
an even amount
and there aren't going to be people
that are oppressed
or taken advantage of.
I have a lot of empathy
for someone who believes
that they can make that a reality,
100%.
So far...
That's dangerous.
That's how they pave the road to hell.
That's what China did.
With good intentions, yeah.
The Union did,
North Korea did.
Yeah.
Very bad, very dangerous. When you With good intentions. The Union did, North Korea did. Very bad, very
dangerous. When you have good intentions and not
being very stupid. Yeah, yeah.
But you're saying that there's a certain amount of realism
that we need to inject.
Yeah. And maybe that's
what's lost in the discourse now
is that we haven't been
as realistic. And maybe we're
too far away from
the perils
of humanity.
Maybe we're too cushioned from the perils
of humanity in America
where we don't even see it as a potential threat.
I mean, the same thing happens with Cubans that come
from Cuba. When they go to
Miami, all of a sudden they're much more conservative
because a lot of people suggest that
they lived through a socialist regime.
And so when they come to America,
they're much more concerned about something like that happening.
You actually said something like this kind of on your Rogan,
which is really interesting.
You said, if you think you are oppressed, you're not oppressed
because if you're truly oppressed, you don't even know what that word is.
That word doesn't even exist to you.
And I think times are so comfortable and amazing in America relative to history
that we are looking for all these things because
now that we have all of our basic needs met
we notice these things. So they
seem like huge deals because
most of us haven't had to worry about food,
shelter, clothing, etc.
So now we start looking at these other things because we still don't
feel whole. And maybe that's where
Christianity and God comes in maybe.
As a mother,
I know you said
you're grateful that you were born in North Korea
so you can appreciate everything that you have
now. You have perspective on it.
As a mother,
I can't fathom that
you want your kid
to understand that type of
appreciation.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, I don't want him to go through the same thing that I did.
Yeah, you're like, fuck perspective.
No, but humans are unique that we have a capability to understand that is abstract.
Of course, understanding what I went through in North Korea is going to be abstract to you.
You've never seen it in fact.
But we are capable of that.
That's why we have a high intelligence.
So my responsibility as a parent
is teaching next generation what I know about
the world. If we do that good,
then what we know about the world,
they understand from us, then they find
more things. So that's
how I see my response, telling him,
not like letting him go through the same hardship and
starving every day and punishing him. Don't do that. Yeah, I'm like response telling him not like letting him go through the same hardship and starve him every day and punish him
yeah
don't do that
yeah I'm like
of course not
but like
I think he can understand that
I think that's why
I believe in humanity
I can teach these people
that what the actual
communism looks like
this might be getting
too philosophical
but the issue becomes
every generation
that grows up better
becomes less passionate
about that thing
your son will have an easier life,
so he won't be as passionate with your grandson, granddaughter,
or grand non-binary, about how life is good,
you need to have perspective, et cetera.
And then the next generation will be that much less passionate.
And so it goes.
And that's actually a sign of success.
Yeah.
No, because...
So that's not a sign of...
Progress is not something that automatically happens.
You need to fight for it.
You know, it's a...
America didn't build out of thin air.
People died for this country.
People invented stuff.
They did not sleep and work hard, like so hard.
So somehow you think if you just sit here
being comfortable and smoking weed and all day
and just watching Netflix
and somehow we are going to
get better as time
passes. No, we can completely go backwards.
Like, I was watching the movie
Idiocracy. I was like,
this is somehow why
it's ringing so best to me, you know?
It can be truly a real thing.
North Korea is so well in the 60s,
70s, and then they went backwards.
And now there's cannibalism.
They're eating each other.
That's the spread, yeah.
Why are people still having children there?
Governments requires you to.
I thought that that might be something.
Because they need more slaves
to make us to build
nuclear weapons and do the
things for them. And how do they
make that happen? It's a marriage assignment.
They assign marriage for you.
Interesting.
Job assignment.
So you cannot determine anything about your life.
You don't even decide what haircut you have.
There's only two haircuts, right?
I've only seen two.
No one decided his haircut is going to be the universe haircut for North Korean men.
Interesting.
But I thought you said they starve the population so that way the population decreases and it's less people to control.
So why would they also encourage them to have more kids?
Because they, among the lower, so in North Korea, the same people, same genetics, look the same, but they divide us in 51 different classes.
51?
Yeah.
That's what you do when you fight for equity.
They divide 51 different classes based on your royalty.
It's like in America,
if your ancestors owned a slave,
now you're guilty, right?
You're like, your genetics are
like retarded.
Yeah, like white people, can you ever
redeem your sin? You can't.
You should be always fully tainted.
And North Korea, because my grandparents
had a land, they said
he was a landowner, my blood is tainted.
My genetics is oppressive to other people.
Oh, but they actually used that terminology, like you had a person's genetics.
She's saying prior to the regime, there were landowners in it.
Yeah, so you're like the slave owner.
Oh, that's where your empathy for white men comes in.
I did not have a slave because he had a tiny land.
No, I'm saying comparing it to like America.
Oh, right, in America, it's like that.
So based on your, America's skin color, it seems like.
You're dividing who's oppressed, who's oppressed.
North Korea is based on the royalty, like where you're a landowner, where you're a capitalist.
Based on that, they divide your class into 51 different classes.
Yeah, but why would they promote people to have?
Among the top class, they do.
Oh, among the top.
Because they are royal.
Got you. They, I mean, they need people to serve— Among the top class, they do. Oh, among the top class. Because they are loyal. Got you.
They, I mean, they need people to serve.
And what about the poor people?
Poor people—
Why are poor people bringing more—and this is not just a North Korean situation.
Maybe it's just human instinct.
It's just what we need to do.
But you see this around the world.
You see the people that are living in these, like, dire situations, and they're still procreating.
It's such a sad story.
Like, later I was grown up up my mom told me in concentration
camps or like prison camps uh they would rather die from starvation than not having sex so i think
that's a very human urge like they wow literally say they'd rather die from starvation not have
sex i think sex is a part of being human.
I don't think that's something
we should be ashamed of.
Yeah.
And I think I heard that
in that dire situation
where people having
just like lice everywhere
and dying from starvation,
they say,
I'm going to give you my dinner.
Would you like,
would you let me do it to you?
Oh, so they're trading food for sex
in the camps.
In the prison camp.
Holy shit.
They're not gays.
That's the only thing available for them.
Oh, they're having sex with men's
butts. Yeah.
So even the
poor class in the bottom, I think they
still get married and have kids.
Jesus. I know.
But most of women still, like,
they don't even get periods because of
malnutrition. That is, yeah, that is common.
Yeah, they don't get periods.
Yeah, you have to have a certain amount of body fat in order to have a menstrual cycle, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
So men are paying each other.
Food.
Food.
They don't have money.
Yeah, they give their dinner.
Why are they dying from starvation?
Fuck.
I mean, that is, they're dying from starvation. Fuck. I mean, that is, they're dying for starvation.
I'm like blown away by this.
Maybe that's their death wish.
Is to fuck butts before they die.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
You should be so grateful
you never have to do that.
I know,
because in America,
they're doing it
while they get food anyway.
Yeah. That puts things in perspective. Also their preference because in America, they're doing it while they get food anyway. Yeah.
That puts things
in perspective.
Also,
their preference too.
It's like,
they're gay,
but like,
these people,
their preference is obviously
women a lot of times,
most of them.
Oh my goodness.
I never seen a gay
in North Korea.
In North Korea.
My life,
yeah,
never.
We never heard about it.
Wow.
It's not even discussed.
No.
It's not a concept.
So,
in order to be gay,
you first need to be full, right?
You need to be like, you have to, you can't be gay if you're hungry.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you know what I mean?
Why can't you not be gay if you're hungry?
No, I'm saying like according to what's going on, like the people are so starving that they can't even think about dicks.
They're just thinking about food.
Yeah, but the men still do.
So in the military, mandatory military service force, both are men.
They're men, like officers of Wisconsin, women soldiers.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, and if women get pregnant, then they get punished, not the officer.
Oh, wow.
There's no me too in North Korea.
There's no women's rights.
There's no me too.
There's no such a concept called sexual harassment.
Oh, my Lord.
We don't know that's a bad thing.
That's how bad communism is.
They don't have human rights,
so there's no such a thing called rape in North Korea.
Oh, my God.
Do you think that they would respect the movement more
if they called it like the Kim Me Too movement or something?
I mean, YouTube would demonetize my videos.
No way.
I talk about the North Korean soldiers
getting raped by the officers
in the military in North Korea. It's very
documented by the UN. This is nuts.
And then YouTube is demonetizing
it? I asked them, also
North Korean women get raped in China
under Communist Party. And then I asked
YouTube, like Google, right? I asked them
do you not support the media of the
women? Like, why would you demonetize
these videos? Maybe it's the topic itself.
No, they said it just does not meet our guidelines.
That's what they respond.
Wow.
Somehow, whatever the guidelines they have,
they only want to go after the people
who were raped by Harvey Weinstein.
That's the support you only get.
And we should also go after them.
But that is a funny thing in my book.
I was flew by Jeff Bezos to go to this campfire event.
Burning Man?
No, it's a private campfire.
Oh.
He flew me with Harvey Weinstein.
You flew with Harvey Weinstein?
The private in the Gulf Stream, yeah.
How was he?
Charming guy.
Really?
He was with his wife, Georgina, and he had two kids and their nannies.
And we flew from near New York in the
private like airport he went to Jeff's event and then he in that private event of course he gave
a speech how he came from the flushing queens how he was fighting for the minority people
and everybody was standing up there giving him standing ovation and one of the women who was
claiming to be raped by him later was there yeah? Yeah. And then, of course, he was the man. The people called him
the man. And then I asked him after
the Me Too comes out, did you know that he was raping
women? Like, yeah, of course, we all knew. Did you not know?
Wow.
Did he offer you any movie roles?
No, he was trying to
send me up to DiCaprio to meet up
because I talked about it from Jeff Bezos
how watching Titanic changed
my life, showed me the sign of humanity.
Jeff was like,
hey, Harvey, why don't you hook up with DiCaprio?
And then Leo, he called him Leo, obviously.
Of course, Leo.
And then Leo's office reached out email.
We wanted to meet.
He was here for the UN event.
I was out, so we couldn't really meet.
How old were you at the time?
Yeah, you might have been.
I was 21.
That's in the range.
Yeah, you're in the range.
That's in the range.
You know, Leo doesn't go...
Below 25.
You know, you know.
I know, my heart was broke.
Yeah.
But it will go on.
It will go on, yeah.
Now, do you think that Leonardo DiCaprio
could have fit on the door with Claire Danes
at the end of the Titanic?
Claire Danes?
Was it Claire Danes?
What's her name?
Kate Winslet.
Kate Winslet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Come on, bro.
I mean, he was...
Even he can't recognize...
White women.
They look...
No, no.
Do you think they could have
both fit on the door together?
Absolutely.
Or they should have tried.
They should have at least tried it.
Yeah, tried it.
That sounds a little communist of you,
to be honest. Really? Everybody should live equally sounds a little communist of you, to be honest.
Really?
Everybody should live equally.
I mean, this is, to be honest.
No, it's because he's just so cute in the movie.
I was just like,
teenage girl, you know,
I loved him.
He's a heartthrob.
Yeah.
Not now.
Oh my God, no thank you.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Wait, why are you not into it?
Why are you not into it?
I mean, no, no, it's like.
Who's the hottest guy in the world?
In the world?
In the whole world, outside of your fiancé.
Who's the hottest guy?
Like, the number one dude.
My, used to be my type was Kim Jong-un.
Not the personality, not the body type, you know?
Because in North Korea, that's a sign of power.
Oh, to be thick.
Yeah, because everybody's starving like me, so small.
So if you're fat, that means you got money.
And bored.
Because nobody lives long enough to get bored.
Oh, that's right.
So if you're old and fat.
Bored and fat, so you are very, very sexy.
Harvey Weinstein.
Exactly.
So I used to love, so my fiance is not the most fit man either. Yeah, but that's what you like. Harvey Weinstein. Exactly. So I used to love,
so my fiance is not the most fit man either.
Yeah, but that's what you like.
That's good.
That means that he's successful.
I'm kind of switching though.
I like slightly more getting into fitness.
So maybe I'm becoming more American.
Okay, Harry Styles.
You like Harry Styles?
Oh no, too gay.
I agree.
Keep on going.
Who is outside fiance? The number one man. George Clooney. No, thank on going. Who is outside fiancé?
The number one man.
George Clooney.
George Clooney?
No, thank you.
No?
Yeah.
I like people like Joe Rogan, like works out.
Yeah.
Rogan's a hottie.
Gentleman, yeah.
Okay, so Joe Rogan.
I'm not going to tell him at all.
I'm not going to tell him.
What about The Rock?
Who's The Rock?
The Rock, Dwayne Johnson.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson?
Uh-uh.
Oh, you don't know?
I thought Obama was very handsome
when he was younger, no?
Yeah.
He was very good looking.
Hot.
What about this guy right here?
What about that guy?
Yeah, that's Dwayne the Rock Johnson.
How tall is it?
Six foot.
He's tall.
He's like...
Why not?
Oh, wow.
Okay, yeah.
I think I can max handle Joe Rogan height.
Joe Rogan getting two shout outs.
So I cannot go above like six maximum.
Six feet is your top.
Yeah, those tall guys, they're all ugly.
Maybe if I'm on the high heels, then I can go for six two.
Six two.
Maybe, maybe.
Okay.
What about Brad Pitt?
Like people like Brad Pitt.
Brad Pitt is handsome.
You into Brad Pitt?
Not really.
Actor? What about Brad Pitt? Like, people like Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt is handsome. You into Brad Pitt? Not really. Actor?
Mm-mm.
What about Will Smith?
Oh, yeah.
He's very, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's very, very.
He's good.
Yeah, Keanu.
Oh, Keanu.
What do you think about Keanu?
I don't know.
He has long hair.
I'm just not into long hair.
You're not into it.
In North Korea,
we never seen a man with long hair.
They need to get two to three inches
mandatory for the government. What is two to three inches mandatory for the government.
What is two to three inches there?
Hair length, maximum.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
Now, with the...
How do you feel about man buns?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is that?
This is a Korean style.
Is it?
Yes, of course. It's known.
It's South Korean, not North Korean.
Oh, okay.
It's very different.
You don't like the man bun?
Yeah, no man bun, no long hair.
Not too tall.
Not too tall.
Not like 6'4".
Not too much with the 6'4".
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, basketball players, too much.
Yeah, I'm friends with Enes Kanter.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, my God.
I'm like coming under his arm.
He's so tall.
I know, I know.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
That's, yeah.
How is Enes?
Oh, what?
Okay, Jared Leto, Ryan Reynolds. Yeah, that's, I mean, the haircut is Yeah. Yeah, I know. That's, yeah. How is Ennis? Oh, what? Okay, Jared Leto, Ryan Reynolds.
Yeah, that's, I mean, the haircut is good.
You like that?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, Johnny, come on, right?
Johnny Depp?
Oh, Bradley Cooper.
What about Bradley Cooper?
Yeah.
I mean, he's the ideal.
Vanilla.
Vanilla.
One of my girlfriends.
Okay, Bradley.
You got to connect.
I'm sure you know someone that can get in touch with him, right?
Listen, can I, I can, you want me to set up a dinner?
Just as a friend.
Just a friend dinner.
Just a friend dinner.
It's okay, I get too shy.
I'm going to embarrass you.
Who would you want, who would you want to play you in a movie about your life?
I don't know the actresses that much.
I don't like watch that much TV.
I'm more like big book person, so I don't know a lot of like actresses I don't watch that much TV. I'm more like a big book person,
so I don't know a lot of actresses.
Who would you want to write your story?
Write my story?
Yeah.
Whoever's good.
R.L. Stine?
Oh, that'd be fire.
What's that?
Goosebumps?
Yeah, he wrote horror books for kids.
Oh.
Yeah.
That'd be interesting.
Okay.
It's a low budget, no?
The horror movies have a lower budget, no?
They do.
They have a little bit lower budget.
But it doesn't have to be horror.
We could make it something else.
Exactly, yeah.
You know?
It's drama.
They tried to make a movie about my book.
About your book, yeah.
Yeah, the first book.
And then they sent me the writing of the book,
I mean, the movie.
And then, like, literally writing the script,
saying, when I was in China, that was my promised land.
Yeah, the Chinese government protecting me
and then helping me, giving me refugees.
So I was calling up the producer, like...
What the fuck is this?
Yeah, this is not what happened.
It's like, this is the only way we can make a movie
about North Korea and Hollywood today.
Oh, wow.
I was like, yeah, no, thank you.
You don't need to make a movie.
It's like, I'm good.
So I got proud, proud of the dinner.
Because Hollywood has interest in China.
They want China to go to the movie theaters.
Also, they are utterly woke.
Yeah, they're very woke.
Yeah.
This is why I'm fighting.
We think that we have a lot of freedom.
A lot of things we are coming, watching,
certain ideology is controlling all these institutions.
And it's really sad.
You have no problem making movies about all other genocides.
Hotel Rwanda is fine, but some North Korean issue, they cannot do that.
Did you see the Hotel Rwanda?
Did you guys see Hotel Rwanda?
How was it?
Very good movie, yeah.
It was a really good movie.
Very powerful movie, yeah.
So you want a version of that,
because movies can get a message out
to people that would never consume your message.
Most people don't read books.
They just want story.
Yeah.
And we attach ourselves to these stories, right?
Yeah.
So maybe the movie is the way.
Yeah, if somebody has the courage
to stand up against CCP, they could.
But I think everybody's afraid here.
Everybody is terrified of the CCP. Yeah, I've been doing this for the last seven years, against CCP, they could. But I think everybody's afraid here. Everybody is terrified of the CCP.
Yeah, I've been doing this for the last seven years,
begging people to do something.
They say the silence is violence.
When it comes to gay rights, LGBTQ rights, BLM,
everything, they are fine.
You got all the sayings down, yo.
You got all the sayings down, boy.
Colombia drills the slogans into you.
They really do.
Of course.
Really?
I mean, they're chanting every day in the middle of the library.
They go chanting this stuff and strikes every day.
It's horrible.
Really?
So you didn't like Columbia?
I barely survived it.
I mean, it was very oppressive.
It was very bad.
Barely survived the army.
It was very bad. It was very bad. I mean, because it was exactly things I was learning in was very bad. Barely survived the on-train. It was very bad.
It was very bad.
Because it was exactly things I was learning in North Korean class.
They were teaching me.
Rank most oppressive lives you've had.
What is more oppressive?
North Korea or going to the University of Columbia?
Of course North Korea.
Okay, what about China or Columbia?
North Korea.
No, no, North Korea is most
what's second
China or
Columbia University
University of Columbia
of course China
I mean yeah
did I call it
the University of Columbia
yeah
also that
university
did you ever go there
Columbia doesn't
oppress you physically
yeah
they try to control
what you think
oh
they teach you
what you think
yeah
so as somebody curious intellectually it's so oppressive.
But not physically, you know.
That is a good point.
So those other places, they weren't, well, I guess North Korea was intellectually oppressing you as well.
Of course.
And China, you weren't even treated as a first.
I was getting raped.
I was a kid.
That fucking hits when you say that to me. I'm going to lie. I'm not weeped. Yeah, you were. I was a kid. That fucking hits
when you say that to me.
I'm going to lie.
I'm not going to lie.
That is good.
You should have
trigger warned him.
I need a trigger warning
for you saying that.
This is a safe space, Joni.
You're not allowed
to share these things.
Because we're used to saying
jokes that involve that,
but when it's real,
that is just fucking...
It's a different thing.
I have a question.
So in researching your story,
I know that there are
some people that are detractors that try to
discredit you and have tried to discredit your story
and say that there's inaccuracies or that
you may be fabricating or
lying about complete events. Is that frustrating
and where do you think that comes from?
I mean, they say that Elon Musk
is an alien, so people are really dumb.
He is an alien. He's trying to go home.
There's some people that did have a
logic thing before my first book comes out, I was living in South Korea.
And South Korea is a very conservative, like India.
If that I said I was raped for two years, I was a sex slave.
No normal man, no normal mother in law going to take me as a woman and then have a child with me.
And as you know, I want to have a child.
I want to have a family.
So I had to hide about family yeah so I had to
hide about the fact I was raped in China and be trafficked but then I had to write all that in
the book but other accusations was very stupid so my English was very bad I had to look up the word
like plants but then they would give the word grass so I ate the plants, I never ate grass. When they went to Google Earth, look up my path of escape,
they checked the altitude.
It's apparent that here is not a mountain.
And then sometimes my English is not perfect.
So as you fixed me, you corrected me a few times,
I just said a few words wrong.
I also think it's like a knee-jerk reaction.
I remember being skeptical of you,
and I think this is when I first heard it on Rogan,
and I think it came from a place
where I didn't want to believe those things were real.
So my way of handling that information was,
well, it's got to be a lie,
because I don't want to live in a world
where this is happening,
and I'm not going to do anything about it.
Now I have to handle that.
I have to settle that emotional debt.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah.
So, yeah, I think that is—
But there's also a main group that is discrediting my story
is the people who follow the Maoist, Leninist, Marxist,
and Democratic Socialism is that.
North Korea is the only country that is the enemy of America, officially, right?
So a lot of people hate America.
Therefore, they love North Korea.
And then they still want socialism to succeed, right?
So then North Korea is the only country
that holds ideology officially, the socialist paradise.
So they just hate that I keep coming out
and discrediting socialism.
Right, and again, they're just... And China, obviously, oh my God. They just hate that I keep coming out and discrediting socialism. Right.
And again, they're just—
And China, obviously.
Oh, my God.
They hate that.
I demonize China.
And then, of course, I speak out against the American mainstream, media, Hollywood.
I have so many enemies.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, why do you want all these enemies?
Is it worth—the juice is worth the squeeze?
Is that the—that's the expression we would use?
Meaning your goal is to get eyeballs and attention on North Korea.
Therefore, it's worth you going through this chaos now?
Because you could easily just not say anything.
Yeah.
You could get a job working in finance.
Most North Koreans do that.
And I think a long guy could get a corporate job.
Yeah.
Working in finance.
Most North Koreans do that. And I had to go long back to get a corporate job.
Yeah.
I think, I didn't understand, like, how many people were, like, this twisted and were that out of touch from reality, you know?
And also, somehow, being cynical is a sign of intelligence, right?
They just want to question for you.
That's good.
Follow nothing.
Literally, you don't need to really question everything. Yeah. Some things are true, like, really? Yeah. And they just want to show for you That's good Literally you don't need to really question everything
Some things are true like really
And they just want to show off
I can think therefore I can question you
So the cynicism
Is like such a hot thing in America
Do you ever get angry
At these people?
Oh I laugh so stupid
Really? Yeah they are so stupid
And I feel bad for them
Like in Colombia one day They Justin, but gender fluid they, comes up.
And he looked, I mean, they looked physically male.
Short hair, everything male, biologically male.
Yeah.
So I did not know the difference.
I called him.
Like, hey, Justin, like, he said this.
And then they came up in tears how I made them, like, insecure, like, threatened emotionally.
Could you just say that I'm still working on my English?
I tried to explain, but just in tears, he could not console himself.
And I was thinking, oh, my God.
Could you tell me he has to do a better job with his makeup?
Or maybe do a lot more than makeup.
I mean, he needed a lot,
they needed a lot of work to be unicorn.
I mean, they go for unicorn, right?
They're not even woman or man,
so they wanna be a unicorn.
No, they is the hardest thing to predict
because you can't predict that someone wants to be both.
Yeah.
Or neither. You can predict male or female. If you to be both. Yeah. Or neither.
You can predict male or female.
If you present as female.
Yeah, let's say they can wear the wig on, makeup on.
I can say she.
Yeah.
But then they.
You can never be upset if someone doesn't get they right.
Because unless they go, I'm a they.
They do upset.
They do get upset.
Yeah, they do.
But realistically, the chances, that's a role that dies guests.
There's no way to dress.
You could dress like a woman to dress like a man.
There's no they.
Right?
Am I missing something?
Besides you?
See, they can get mad after you, if they correct you, and then you're still.
That's what I'm saying.
That's the first time.
Oh, okay.
The first time on a they, they got to give you that.
But I meet hundreds of people every month.
I'm going to miss you.
Okay.
Okay, Yomi.
You, right? That Bumble going to miss you. Okay. Okay, Yomi. You're right.
That Bumble account is killing it.
Exactly.
But how would you expect somebody to, because I said once to you,
how entitled are you?
What are you?
Like self-righteous people.
Yeah.
I don't expect them to be.
They call me Yomi.
I don't fix them.
So call me something.
What is it?
YP?
You want to go by YP?
They call me, my name is Yonmi. Yonmi. A lot of people call me Yomi, is it? YP? You want to go by YP? They call me, my name is Yeonmi.
Yeonmi.
A lot of people call me
Yummy, Yummy,
whatever it is.
But for white people,
it feels,
it feels a little bit racist
to pronounce your name
in an Asian accent.
Ah, interesting.
Do you know,
like,
you could,
if I was like,
if someone was named Carlos
and you're like,
Carlos,
that doesn't feel as racist.
But if I was to go,
I would feel like I'm like mocking your, even though it's fun.
But it makes you feel happy.
Yeah, just call me anything.
I'm fine.
Okay.
But, like, calling you something wrong
shouldn't be the end of the world.
That shouldn't be the...
Like, for their oppression is that.
And you're the perfect antidote for that
in a lot of ways, right?
Because they...
I'm not antidote.
For them, it's like I am brainwashed puppet.
Of course, of course.
But I guess what I'm saying is, like,
they can't complain about their privilege
or their lack of privilege. They can't complain about their privilege or their lack of privilege.
They can't complain about their struggle if you're around because you have the ultimate struggle.
But they do.
Well, that's absurd.
And I think that like when you – that's why I'm concerned about people potentially using you because that juxtaposition between somebody complaining about not being called they and you complaining at all, despite what you've been through,
you could really expose those people.
Yeah.
So I'm, like, for me,
if I was, like, some billionaire,
like, super rich libertarian motherfucker or whatever,
I would be like, yo, I need that girl.
Get her over here.
Let's pay her fucking tons of money
or make sure she's cushy
and make sure she's comfortable,
she's smart, she's well-spoken,
and she could expose all this ideology
that I don't necessarily agree with.
I would do that.
I just don't have enough money.
I need to make more money so that we can get it going.
Exactly. Let's find the figure out.
Who would I be the one?
Let's get a list.
It keeps, like, the black money and, like, how the...
Black money?
No, no, no.
What if that's not a myth?
There's a book about it
is that a record label
about how this
black money
Koch brothers
is that called layaway
I don't know
some very American
wow
core like
wealthy people
I thought it was good
funding these ideologies
and funding these groups
like where are they
why are they not calling
well there are certain groups
that do right
on both sides
connect me to them
I don't know where they are.
Right, right, right, right.
But that's what they accuse me.
I'm somehow funded by some libertarian group.
I'm like, where are they?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just very interesting.
Yeah.
I don't know where they are.
I think they should find out.
They should present themselves.
Yeah.
By now, they should show up.
Because you have the best story to thwart.
It's really hard to argue with your story.
Yeah.
And your perspective on it too, right?
I don't know.
This is all I know.
So I don't know how this is different to Americans.
Okay, is there anything that you like about the left?
The left?
Or leftism or woke ideology?
Is there anything that you like?
Like you've experienced discrimination
even in South Korea, right?
As a North Korean.
Perhaps do you like the fact that
the left might be more accepting of people
from different backgrounds?
Maybe not different ideological backgrounds,
but visual, like you coming from another country
wouldn't be an immediate thing
that we would ostracize you for, the left would ostracize you for.
America's in general very accepting of different backgrounds.
Right, though?
Come on, Al.
No.
No? Okay, okay.
Not all areas.
I guess so, because when I came to America, I went to Tyler, Texas, and then we went through Georgia, Atlanta, through Arkansas.
So we did the Bible mission group. So I saw the deep, Atlanta, through Arkansas. We did the Bible mission group.
So I saw the deep, deep, deep South.
We knocked on doors, cleaned their garbage.
Did they think you were delivering something?
No, we asked them, would you have trashed out?
We can help you to do that.
We would go to community service and read books to children.
We would go pray for them and give them.
In the homeless shelter, we make breakfast and for them and give them, in the homeless shelter we make the like, you know,
breakfast and feed them in the morning.
So I did that work in the south
and I went to homeless shelter, they were very friendly.
They were like a lot of black men
and they were very curious about where I coming from.
But I'll just let you know,
there are still many places in America
that are not so understanding
and open to all types of people.
Okay, okay. Like there are places I can go where I'll get called a word.
Really?
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, I mean, Japan, South Korea,
they don't even allow the foreigners into their restaurant.
There are literally signs, foreigners are not allowed.
Have you been to Japan and Korea?
Not Korea, but Japan, yeah.
Yeah, they have literally restaurants, public business,
don't allow you to eat there. So for me, I compare the racism to that and Korea. Not Korea, but Japan, yeah. Yeah, they have literally restaurants, public business, don't allow you to eat there.
So, like, for me,
like, I compare the racism to that.
Gotcha.
So, it's like American racism
is almost a joke, right?
Yeah.
Like, there's, like,
no restaurant I have been
that you are not,
Asians are not allowed.
I've never seen that before.
Yeah.
In Japan, South Korea,
clearly.
Yeah.
Foreigners are not allowed
in this bar, in the restaurant.
Like, white people
aren't allowed
to black people cookouts
we just don't allow them
to come
unless they check out
if they're allies
yeah
yeah
black people are talking
about this whole cookout
they're gonna have
they think that we wanna go
to this cookout so bad
they love this cookout
they think we can't wait
to go to the public barbecue
and then cook on the public grills.
I'd like to go.
Exactly.
I'd like to go.
I'd like to at least know I'm invited.
Alex, how many cookouts have you been growing up in New York?
We didn't have fucking cookouts.
Oh, yes, we did.
Yes, we did.
All the time.
We would go to the park and have cookouts all the time.
Like all the time.
You weren't invited.
Yeah.
I wasn't invited.
I tell you, okay.
All the time.
There's a term in America when a non-black person
is doing something
that black people appreciate
or respect,
they'll go,
he's invited to the cookout.
Which basically means,
you're cool.
You're cool.
You're down.
Like, I don't know
what that term would be
in Korea.
What is that term?
Well, they have Korean barbecue.
They have Korean barbecue.
But anybody's allowed
to go to the Korean barbecue.
You can invite them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I guess it's just a term of endurance.
It's our way of basically saying you're a good guy, you're cool.
You're not one of the bad guys.
Oh, wow.
There's so much I need to learn about this.
The race thing is very unique to America.
Very unique.
So not a lot of history books taught me this.
So maybe like in real life they is going to teach me about this.
There is a specific racial dynamic that exists in America that doesn't exist in a lot of other places.
Because a lot of the black people that are here are descendants of people that did not want to come.
It's very different when you go to a country that is racist.
You're opting in.
Yeah, you chose to voluntarily go.
Exactly, right?
Yeah.
So, whereas there are people
who are here
that are experiencing racism
that were like,
my family never wanted to be here
and I got to put up with this shit.
Yeah.
Right?
So it's not like they came for opportunity.
Like, for example,
Akash's family came here.
Yeah.
Right?
And he might have had to deal
with some racism,
but that's what they signed up for. So. They moved to, no, they didn't sign up for it. It's illegal to be racist. Right, right? And he might have had to deal with some racism, but that's what they signed up for.
No, they didn't sign up for it. It's illegal
to be racist. But they knew
that going into it, there might be some situations
that are wrong. Now, it's against
the law. You can't discriminate against people,
but they might go through some stuff that are going to be uncomfortable.
To be fair, I don't know that my generation knew,
but they were like, whatever, we chose to come here.
They didn't have that option. A lot of black people.
So that's why the dynamic
racially is a little different than in other countries
where it's like these people
went to another place and they're oppressed there
but they might have been aware that
there was oppression that waited for them there.
Right? So it is a quite
unique scenario. You're saying that they should
go back where they came from? Yeah, so what
Mark thinks is the solution.
He literally just brought it up.
You say this a lot of times.
You literally just brought it up
right now.
He says this a lot.
He's from Florida.
He knows what you're going to get
in Florida.
He goes,
we should bring all the black people
back where they're from.
That's what Mark says.
No, you just said that.
You just said that.
What do you think about
a guy who says something like that?
So my question is that...
How do we get them there?
No, no, I'm just curious
is that like...
So even countries like Iran, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Horrible, horrible regime.
But they still let people, let them go.
If they want to go, leave the country, they can leave the country.
I think there was a small window where they did that.
You're talking about when the Shah fell and a lot of Iranians came to.
Nowadays, even Iranians have a password that if they want to leave the country, they can leave the country.
Oh, is that right?
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Of course, a lot of countries are not going to accept them as refugees, but they can go leave the country. Oh, is that right? Yeah, yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Of course, a lot of countries are not going to accept them
as refugees,
but they can go travel
to other countries.
Gotcha, okay.
So North Korean people
don't even know
the concept of passport.
Right.
So, like,
at Columbia,
these people are saying
they can't breathe
because this oppression
is so bad.
Like, we can't breathe,
we can't, like,
they're just chanting
every day out here.
Yeah, yeah.
It's like,
if it's that bad,
I mean,
you don't need to even escape,
you don't need to cross the desert, you can just go wherever you want, leave the country. Yes, yeah. It's like, if it's that bad, I mean, you don't need to even escape. You don't need to cross the desert.
You can just go
wherever you want
and leave the country.
Yes, you're 100% right.
You can go to Canada
or Australia or maybe
And they need to know
that perspective?
But that's just all they know.
It's like,
have you ever been like
But they should go
if their life is that unbearable.
If what they're saying
is really, really
that unbearable,
everybody should have
a right to escape
and have a right to live
and America is opening
the door for people to travel around. Yes, that's true. So they should immigrate to North Korea. Yeah.
Yes, that's true.
Yeah.
But North Korea won't let us in. They do.
There were people who escaped.
So they use them as actors in the movies
and play the bad American bastards.
Oh, really?
Yeah, they're like American white people.
A few hundred of them.
They have a few hundred white Americans that just live in North Korea? Yeah. And're like American white people, a few hundred of them. They have a few hundred white Americans
that just live in North Korea?
Yeah.
And they are not allowed to leave?
They learned all like fluent North Korean
and praise a dictator like us, too.
But they did get in.
Also during the war,
like they captured some American soldiers
that their children kept.
They married,
they don't inbreed them, right?
They only married the white whites.
Yeah.
The children are like
still there. Oh my god.
I mean, he can look it up. Like they
praise the dictator so much.
Like acting like North Koreans, but just white.
Wow. Yep.
So you can't
go to North Korea if you hate America so
much. Yeah. Go. Like the door
is open. Yeah. I don't get that.
Why don't we not do that is there like
a window for complaining you know like you should complain yeah i think like let's say you're eating
out and you use the bathroom and you go to wipe and there's no toilet paper do you go fuck fuck
this place or do you go oh yeah even little things exactly right so it's like yeah we complain a
little bit but but we also know that there are situations
where you never had fucking toilet paper at all growing up.
So maybe it's silly that you're complaining about it,
but at the same time, it's okay.
You just get it out of the system.
But let others complain too.
Yeah.
But the thing is, they say they want the communist revolution.
They want dismantling the system.
Oh, yeah.
They want to tear down the constitution. They don't know what that is. They want to dismantle the system. Oh, yeah. They want to tear down the constitution.
They don't know what that is.
They're just poor.
No, the Ivy League professors
who win the Nobel Prize
are saying that.
Yeah, she's saying like
privileged Columbia kids,
Ivy League professors,
they're poor.
They have gambling problems.
They have gambling problems.
Nobody with real money
ever says that.
This is for children.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Even Bernie,
like he got three houses and he's like, I don't really need to run for president. Do you know what I mean? AOC, I children. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even Bernie, like, he got three houses and he's like, I don't really need
a rumber president. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, she's poor. She was making
more money bartending. Once she gets some
real money, she'll be like, okay, I'll be a more
like neutral, take a more
neutral approach to economic
ideology
and then she'll fall in line with whatever the party is.
She's probably making money off speeches or whatever.
Yeah. I feel like she's making money.
The more money she makes, the more she'll go,
okay, I don't really care about this.
It is a function of money.
I promise you, that's all it is.
It's like, that's why kids are the most, like,
into this whole, like, Marxist ideology,
and then they get real responsibility,
and they're like, wait a minute,
the government's taking how much of my money?
Fuck that.
You know, all you have to do is pay taxes one time.
Not the government takes your taxes.
You pay it. Yeah. Like, when you have to do is pay taxes one time. Not the government takes your taxes. You pay it.
Yeah.
Like when you got your money from your book.
Yeah, you see that there is.
And then you realize how much you had to pay.
You're like, what the fuck?
You just need to do that once in your life.
And then immediately go, oh, okay.
These libertarians are onto something.
Really?
Yeah.
I may know people who are like.
Look at the Black Lives Matter founders.
They're all about communism, everything.
They made fucking $70 million.
They bought houses all over North America.
Yeah.
If you want to stop communism, give them all money.
Give them money.
Every person that is a communist, give them $10 million.
If you want to stop it, if that's really what you care about,
you want to stop it in its tracks, give them money.
I don't want to stop communism.
What?
I mean, it's an evil ideology, but I want to have a freedom to talk about it.
Sure.
You know what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you want to convince them that it isn't that great, just give them the thing they don't have.
I don't believe any professor that is wealthy only wants to be a communist.
I don't believe it.
And I believe that they have a drug problem.
I believe they have a drug problem or they're into hookers or they're into something like that. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. And I believe that they have a drug problem. I believe they have a drug problem
or they're into hookers
or they're into
something like that.
I don't believe it.
I don't believe it.
I cannot imagine
that this is a real thing.
Yeah.
I think Bernie really
wants to help people.
But even he doesn't
want to be a communist.
I think that he believes
in more socialism,
which we're already
fucking socialists.
We already have so many
social programs.
This idea that we're
so far off from the UK who identifies as a socialist nation. It's not even that, like, we're so far off from the UK, who identifies
as a socialist nation. Like, it's not
even that far off, but we're just locked into this freedom
narrative, which is great. It's who we are as
Americans. Yes, absolutely, let's do it.
And this idea of being socialist
has been so bastardized because we're looking at
Venezuela and they're eating the fucking animals in the zoo.
We're like, I don't want any of that. But the reality
is we're not that far off from it. I think he just
kind of wants to help people.
But yeah, it's just a money thing.
Once you get some money, all that shit, throw it out the window.
Wow.
So they should work hard to innovate stuff.
Do something.
I mean, imagine you're a college kid.
You signed up for college and you have $250,000 in debt.
I'd want something from the government too.
Marxism sounds great.
Doesn't it sound awesome?
I signed up for $250,000 worth of debt. I think the government should pay me. Right.
Make college free. It's entitlement.
That's wrong. Why other
people should pay for their university choice
to go? No, I don't think they're entitled.
They don't really believe it. They're just saying it.
They don't really believe they're entitled.
Oh, they believe it.
I think it's like, the louder
you say something, the less you really
believe it you're trying to convince yourself you know what i'm saying so you don't think
these people that keep marching like free health care free education they're just bored
they don't have a job to make money at but they have time to go around and answer people like me
that's what i'm saying oh they're just bored yeah they just don't have something they just
they need kids they don't have kids yeah people just, they need kids. They don't have kids. Yeah.
People used to have kids younger,
and then they didn't have time to march
because they were feeding a kid.
Yeah, we were just so busy.
Like, I have no time to go out marching anywhere.
Exactly.
I mean, you're a mother.
Yeah.
It's hard.
Yeah, there's no time for anything else.
You're exhausted, and then someone goes,
hey, be at the march.
March?
What do you mean march?
Can we sit down and do this?
Yeah, I mean, I need to put baby down
by 7 p.m. every night.
I can't march. I can't. There's no way I can march do this? Yeah, I mean, I need to put baby down by 7 p.m. every night. You can't march.
I can't.
There's no way I can march.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's all it is.
But you think they don't care or they're just too busy?
What do you mean?
Like, if you have kids.
Oh, I see.
You don't care about those things or you're just too busy to be in peace?
I think you stop caring once you have kids.
You care a little less.
I think your world gets a little bit smaller.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, that's not everybody.
I'm sure there are people who really do care.
They want to make these changes for sure.
But I think the majority of people, once they have kids,
like, you know, the world shrinks a little bit.
You know, you start to focus on those things
and what you can do to help and provide for those people.
And now, this idea that, like...
You talk about the world deeply after children.
You worry about everything.
You want them to have better words.
I can imagine that, for sure. I don't have kids yet.
You genuinely worry about the word after.
I mean, that was my experience at least.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You worry about it in a different way.
It's very different way.
Yeah.
I spoke to, I was speaking to Rogan about that.
Yeah.
And it was like, he definitely said that.
He's like, because I told him I was experiencing some apathy.
Like I was very fortunate where I made some money and I felt comfortable and I didn't have children. So I was
in this like state of this, this malaise, right? Where it's just like, I can do whatever I want
and everything's fine. And I don't, I don't want to get riled up about politics. I don't want to
get riled up about any of these things. And he goes, once you have kids, you're worried what
they're consuming. You're worried what they're learning. Right. You're worried what they're learning. Exactly. That's why you care about education. Exactly.
Their classmates, everything, TV.
Yeah.
So you care about the world for them.
Exactly.
Not for yourself.
No.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to die eventually.
Caring about other people.
Very socialist.
Hey!
So you can be socialist just with the family.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very Asian thing. Very Asian thing. Only your family matters just with the family. Yeah.
Very Asian thing.
Very Asian thing.
Only your family matters. Only the family matters.
I'm curious, is there anything or any experiences or anything?
It's so interesting you get this new start on life where you come to America almost as an adult
and you get to re-experience all these things and be exposed to everything new all at once.
Are there things you haven't done yet that you're really excited to do that is on your bucket list like
oh one day i want to go to this concert or i want to experience this thing i mean i heard i mean
even burning man was one of them i really want to experience it but i decided like eventually i was
like maybe i don't need to experience everything maybe you
know I don't know I'm still debating definitely come to Burning Man okay okay
I'm sold Okay, let's meet in the, like, what is it again?
Player, player.
Player.
That's what I'm saying, player.
Let's meet at the player.
The player.
God damn it, dude.
God damn it.
I thought we was at the cookout.
This guy is full retard.
He might have some cockroach and, like, you know, grasshopper grasshopper hookouts for people.
That would be awesome.
That would be so awesome.
Another question based off what he said.
What was a memory you have in America where you're like, oh, this is freedom.
This is what I envision America was.
What did freedom feel like?
Dating.
Literally, I can date anybody, any race, any socioeconomic class.
Literally, I can date anybody I want.
Like, in North Korea, I couldn't do that.
Because my songbun, like, class was really low.
Yeah.
And nobody could marry me up.
Yes.
But here, I can marry whoever I want.
And that's real, like, freedom for me.
And even before the dating, like, and it doesn't have to be America.
It can be South Korea, too.
What does freedom feel like?
Because we don't know what it feels like
because we exist in it all the time.
I know there's like levels.
Like I hate rules.
I hate restriction in anything.
Like for my wife to get me to do things,
she knows she can't tell me.
She has to like,
she has to tell me how it would make her feel.
And I just love making her happy.
So I'll want to do it to make her happy.
She's a wise woman.
Oh, she's very smart.
Yeah, very wise. She knows how to, yeah, she's good.
She's good.
Keep her.
I'm going to keep her.
Yeah, for sure.
Conceptually.
Yeah.
But okay, so what does it feel like when you go from not being able to make a single decision yourself to freedom?
What is that?
Do you know what to do with it?
Do you understand it?
No, it's overwhelming.
It's so painful.
Oh, yeah.
It's painful.
To be free, yeah.
You're scared of the consequences of choices you make.
I mean, freedom is a responsibility, right?
Speak on this.
Yeah.
Because before you knew exactly what to do
and you knew the rules
and how you were affected if you broke the rules. Yeah. And now you knew exactly what to do and you knew the rules and how you were affected if you broke the rules.
Yeah.
And now you're saying you have the ability to do whatever you want and you don't know the rules?
Why is there a fear?
I mean, thinking is tiring.
I never, like, thought for myself.
That was not a function of brain in my head.
Like, I was thinking for myself, you know?
It was very hard to do that.
So even, like, looking at a restaurant menu is probably like, fuck, dude dude i don't know i would not read the menu with my first boyfriend like why
you need to choose for me something i would not do that for a long time and now i'm like more fancy
can you put the dressing on the side
that's america i have too many calories. Please put the dresser on the side.
Yeah, I'm getting too fat.
But still, like, also, even what you want to do.
Do you get married?
Even getting divorced is my free thing.
Like, I need to be responsible for the consequences, right?
And nobody will take care of me.
And even the clothes that I choose to wear is, like, my choice.
And if somebody mock me, that's my responsibility.
It's like everything is up to me. Yeah. It's like my choice and if somebody mock me, that's my responsibility. It's like everything
is up to me.
And it is overwhelming.
I can see why people
want the governments
to take care of them.
Yeah, you can see
why people are compelled
to security.
Yeah, they want to be
taken care of by something
that is bigger than us.
You want to know
there's protection.
Yeah.
Everything's going to be okay.
Yeah.
It is a human instinct
in a way to feel.
I don't know if freedom
is if we're instinctually free. No, it's not. Yeah, I think it is a concept we in a way. I don't know if freedom is, if we're instinctually free.
No, it's not.
Yeah, I think it is a concept we kind of invented.
Yeah, it's an innovative idea.
Democracy is a new idea.
Yes, yes.
And it feels incredible, and we thrive in it.
But yeah, we do crave some sort of structure
and some sort of protection.
We do.
So you coming from too much of that to none of it,
and not even being able to order off a menu.
Yeah.
Not even knowing what to wear.
No.
Or what to even study, what's out there.
They say, what do you want to be in North Korea?
I don't know what lawyer is.
I don't know what comedian is.
I don't know what any jobs.
In North Korea, we are all revolutionaries
working in the farm, collective farmers,
or the factory workers.
That's all we got.
We don't have the technology
engineers. There's
bankers. I mean, teaching North Korean
hedge funds, I mean,
that's a different concept, right?
Or teaching me about Bitcoin,
that took 60 years.
It took a while.
Do you remember where you were
when you first heard
Gangnam Style?
South Korea.
Yeah.
Obviously.
Yeah.
You mean the music itself?
Yeah.
The music?
Yeah.
By Psy.
By Psy.
Psy was the Gangnam Style.
Yeah, Gangnam Style.
Yeah, in South Korea I heard him.
And what was that like?
Very funny, but, like, I was very busy studying in the university.
So North Koreans, when we come, South Koreans are a very educated population.
They study since they're wide in their mommy's tummy.
They play them classical music and the English speeches, everything to them.
They go through tutoring, and, like, they study crazy hard.
I mean, kids are pressured, and they are busier than presidents.
South Korean high school kids are busier than any president in the world.
Today they take the Korean SAT to go to university but even planes don't fly.
Wow.
Can't bother their noise.
It's the most serious thing in Korea when they take the exam to go to university.
Many kids kill themselves that day.
Wow. Wow.
Whoa!
This is how competitive South Korean education system is.
And I was, like, Korean age, like, 17 years old, almost, like, 18.
And you got to learn school all over again.
They placed me, I was a level of elementary school, like, first grade. You're not all over.
You never learned it.
Yeah.
I don't even know the ABC, like, alphabet.
So I had to study really, really hard.
I had not even,, really hard. I had no time
to eat myself.
I like ended up
in the ER
for malnutrition
in South Korea
because I didn't
have time to eat.
What?
Yeah.
So that's how I caught up.
So I didn't really
have time to follow
the pop culture
or anything.
But to go back
to my original question.
What was that like for you?
For him?
For you to just experience that.
Fun, a lot of hot ladies dancing.
That's all I saw.
Do you know that song was huge in America?
I heard it was huge.
Around the whole world.
It was how huge?
It was like Peter's huge?
Yeah, like what huge?
It was as big as it can be. It was the most viewed? It was like Beatles huge? Yeah, like what huge? It was as big
as it can be.
It was the most
viewed video on YouTube.
Bigger than Justin Bieber.
Like Beyonce,
everybody knows
Gangnam Style?
Everybody on the planet
would know.
Now,
it's just one song,
so it stops.
Yeah,
not North Korea.
But I think some people
would even know
North Korea.
in North Korea.
Yeah,
a little know,
but not the country,
yeah.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
Wow.
Wow is right.
Yeah,
is that song was that amazing?
I mean, they don't follow a lot of pop culture.
Yeah, you like classical music more.
Yeah, very boring grandma.
I mean, I have a lot of catching up to do.
No, that's good.
Beginning from there.
A hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
Okay.
No, look, look, look.
I'm not judging.
I just, I remember where I was when I first heard the song.
I was at the, I don't remember. Damn it, I wish heard the song where were you? I was at the I don't remember
damn it
I wish I had a good story
right there
okay
any questions
before we
we
we finish up
this lovely interview
with Yeonmi
yes
Yeonmi
Yeonmi
yeah
that's very proper
isn't Yeonmi
your first name?
Yeonmi is my
we don't have middle name
Yeonmi
yeah my first name is Yeonmi but in Korea what do they call you? Park Yeonmi? Park Yeonmi is my first name. We don't have middle name. My first name is Yeonmi.
But in Korea, would they call you Park Yeonmi?
Park Yeonmi, yeah. The family name is first.
Park Yeonmi.
So that's the right way.
Family name.
It doesn't mean anything.
It might not be even our family name,
but my grandpa thought it was fine to get it.
In Korea, do they call, do they say Kardashian Kim?
I did not know who she was.
Really?
I mean, I met her, so I was giving a speech at the Women in the World.
In London, and then my editors from Penguin were sitting together,
there was some woman, Cara Delevingne.
Yeah.
Some woman comes up
and she saw my speech
and she
and then she was with
some woman
Kendall Jenner
Kendall Jenner
oh something like that
and then like
I have no idea
about these people
and my editor was like
do you know
who's Kim Kardashian
she's like of course
I don't know
so that's better that way
let's keep it that way
and then
they took my boob
they got some like
pictures of the paparazzis.
So that's the only thing I think they did
that was something valuable in the recent years.
Maybe a lot of other things.
Your son will know about them.
I hope not, but okay.
But the Internet exists.
He's going to find.
Okay, okay.
Freedom.
Yeah.
I mean, they were lovely in person.
They were really nice.
Yeah, very, very,, freedom. Yeah. I mean, they were lovely in person. Absolutely. They were really nice.
Yeah, very, very, very friendly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think Cara Delevingne, I think she goes both ways.
That's why she was...
Did she give you that energy?
I don't know.
I cannot.
I don't have a gay detector, no lesbian detector.
You can't detect lesbians?
Yeah, I can't.
No.
Yeah, how do you detect it? Yeah, I can't. No.
Yeah, how do you detect it?
See, so she doesn't know that you're a lesbian.
Yeah.
They have very North Korean haircuts a lot of times.
Oh, they have short hair.
Well, sometimes they have short hair.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, okay.
There's usually, there's a smell.
Smell.
Is it a perfume they use? It's like a musk.
Yeah.
They use a musk perfume.
It's just natural.
Yeah, it's a natural thing.
Sometimes they're built like Kim Jong-un.
Yeah, yeah.
Sometimes they're like...
They have builds.
There's ways to find out lesbians.
You can tell.
Ellen DeGeneres, like...
She doesn't look like that.
She has the hair, though.
Short hair.
If you saw her and she's like, I'm a lesbian, you wouldn't be like, no.
Yeah, no.
I wouldn't believe her.
You'd believe her right away.
There's certain girls where if they're like, I'm a lesbian, you'd be like, come on.
You're just pulling my labia.
But the thing is, most of my girlfriends are fluid.
I don't know that many straight girls living in New York and SF.
Wait, what?
Yeah. Because my friends
go to Burning Man. That's why I think they are all
like a... That's where it happens.
They, like, have a non-
exclusive relationship.
They both genders,
right? Like, they have, like, SF
boyfriend, they have Seattle boyfriend, they have
New York boyfriend, like... Oh, no.
Your friends are... But they were gay. What? No, Oh, no. Your friends are...
But they were gay.
No, no, no.
They are very legitimate, smart women.
No.
These are modern women.
Modern women who have a lot of open relationships.
Oh, wow.
My friends also even have an open marriage.
No.
Yeah, I went to TED, right?
That conference.
And we had a retreat after TED people attended. Yeah, I went to TED, right, that conference, and we had a retreat after TED that people
attended.
Yeah.
And they were telling me about how awesome it is, you know, the open, like, marriage,
you know?
Like, he goes on dates with the women, and then she goes on trips with her boyfriend,
and comes on—
Okay, okay.
When you see this stuff, are you ever like, we need a little North Korea in here?
Not too much, but just a little bit
it just seems very lost and it doesn't feel clean I'm so sorry and we just need a little
organization no organization I think individuals have a conscience to control that I think but I
don't know what what do I never tried that lifestyle either so I don't know I cannot judge
it same but I don't think I want to ever try it no I just my mother like thing in there just telling me it's wrong I don't think
my father gonna look down like I'm so proud of you like having a boyfriend in every city you know
so but that's freedom I support them yeah nothing to shame if you're same about it yeah yeah I'm
curious are there cultural issues that come up in your relationship
that make, like, arguing difficult?
Because I know friends that will be in relationships with people in different cultures
that grew up differently.
Yeah.
And you grew up so differently than everyone else on earth.
I had it with my white partner with that.
So you said you don't like to be told what to do.
So, like, we have a kid.
My ex loves getting coffee in the morning.
I don't drink coffee but
he cannot function until he gets coffee like he needs to drink coffee to be like clear his mind
and be like productive so like I would tell him like hey I can take care of like our son you can
go get your coffee then he's like don't tell me what to do and I'm like I was just trying to be nice
so you don't worry
that I got
like our son
got the childcare part done
but then he's like
oh don't tell me what to do
so I was like
I cannot figure out why guys
that's when I was like
okay I'm divorcing
yeah
what?
I say the same thing
yeah
don't tell me what to do
that's just a sign of love
in our culture right
like you're being thoughtful
and telling them it's not even telling him what to do. That just was a sign of love in our culture, right? You were being thoughtful and telling them.
That's not even telling him what to do.
You're just giving him the option.
You're giving him freedom.
If you want to go get coffee, you get coffee.
If you don't, you don't.
Yeah, but it was out of love.
It was not like forcing him.
Right.
But he interpreted it as I was telling him what to do.
So I was like, I don't know.
I just don't know how to figure out this culture gap.
Are you dominant in the relationship?
I let the man decide big decisions,
but when it comes to household and the childcare I do,
so I like to put where I want to put the couch.
But like where we live, what school to send our kids,
you know, big decisions outside.
But the little ones...
It's like, home is mine.
Like, what socks I put on my son.
But my...
And what if he goes against that?
He does. He's like, you cannot put on that sweater
on him. You cannot put that socks on him.
And what do you do?
I thought, like, no,
I'm going to put this on him.
But then he's like, no.
So I think that's when I was confused. In North Korea, like, no, I'm going to put this on him. But then he's like, no. So I think that's when I was confused.
In North Korea, like, usually men are the provider and protector.
They make big decisions outside the household.
And when it comes to little things at home, women decide.
But I think the perfect equality of things, gender wars in America,
is, like, guys think they need to make insane in every single thing.
And I'm like, no.
Like he's just like, oh, give me a break.
I can't decide what socks I put on my son, right?
Like I can't decide that little much, but I don't think they want that.
It was too controlling.
But I think that's American thing.
They believe in the complete equality of gender roles, right?
Was he a little surprised when you had like opinions
and that kind of stuff?
Yeah, he's like,
oh, I thought a North Korean woman
was going to be very submissive.
Yeah, I would be surprised too.
But I was like,
why do you think I escaped?
That's a good ass point.
You may end up
a good ass point right there.
Yeah, that's on him.
That really is on him.
He did not see that coming at all.
I told you,
he was weird looking, man.
No more how. No more how.
No more how.
Yeah, so North Korean women are way more submissive in general,
but not me because I cross the desert to be free.
Yeah, you are not going to submit.
No, I will not.
Yeah, this is great.
We're so grateful for you coming on the podcast.
Thank you so much for being here.
I want everybody to go check out
both of the books.
But this one right here,
While Time Remains,
forward by Jordan Peterson.
Shout out to Jordan.
We love Jordan over here.
So make sure you check it out.
And you've got a great podcast with Joe.
I'm sure you've done a lot of other speeches
and stuff like that.
So much stuff of you up on YouTube,
so make sure you go check that out.
And yeah, we're just so grateful you came.
We're so grateful you're down to have fun and joke around. You know,
this is a comedy podcast, so it was going to be, we thought, tricky to do comedy with also your
incredibly traumatic life story, but you handled it with such grace, and we're really grateful
that you're here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Yay!