Yusung Pak Details Escape from North Korea for Global Studies Lecture Series

Pak produced a combination of amusement and awe as he discussed his journey — one filled with constant fear, but a desperate wish to survive. 

Pak speaking at the event. Photo by Betzaida Cajas Guerra '27

Yusung Pak, a North Korean defector and documentary filmmaker, left the audience awestruck in the Dyson Center on Oct. 7 as he discussed his journey out of North Korea.

Pak spoke to students and faculty during the first of three guest lecture events this semester, which Dr. Sang-Keun Yoo, an assistant professor of English at Marist College, helped to organize. Pak was light-hearted as he gave his tale of escape and was honest about the nerves he felt while giving a talk in the U.S. for the first time. He kept the audience engaged with interactive comments, and Dr. Yoo helped to guide a question-and-answer session at the end of the talk. 

After an introduction by Dr. Yoo, Pak dove into the days of his childhood in North Korea, where people were frequently dying on the streets of the local market from starvation or sickness. The Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 hit the country hard, causing instability and a lack of help from North Korea’s leaders. He explained that people became selfish with food and other necessities. He found himself frequently thinking: “How am I going to survive tomorrow?” 

After he finished school, Pak and his mother secretly decided to leave, as it was common for North Koreans to report other citizens. They crossed into China, and their extensive journey began; they joined a team of others, including a man with a broken leg and a woman with an infant, who persevered with them throughout the months-long journey in the hope of freedom. 

“I just found it interesting how despite the amount of propaganda that North Korea tries to instill in society, he and his family and many others still wanted to seek freedom and risk their lives for it,” said Alyssa Puentes ‘26. 

They ended their journey in Thailand, finally away from the constant fear of being caught. Eventually, Pak traveled to South Korea, where he went through investigations and an education program to learn basic social skills, such as using the Internet before he earned his citizenship there. 

Pak shared that others in South Korea hesitated to believe him when he told his story, as he had taken an improbable journey without any legal documents. This journey influenced the making of his documentary, “There Live Crocodiles in Mekong River,” where he and his friends retraced the path of escape. 

Towards the end of his remarks, Pak emphasized that more people in North Korea want to escape, but are not able to do so on their own. He hopes others in the world continue to become educated about life in North Korea and consider their hardships in the way that many Marist students did at the lecture. 

“Everything we talk about with Korea in the United States is mostly K-pop, K-drama and BTS, but there is another half of Korea, which is North Korea, which no one talks about,” said Dr. Yoo.