Human Rights Activist and Author Yeonmi Park to Keynote ASU+GSV Summit 2025

North Korean defector and human rights activist Yeonmi Park will keynote at the 2025 ASU+GSV Summit!
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At the age of 13, Yeonmi Park bravely escaped the punishing regime in Hyesan, North Korea. After her father’s arrest and sister’s escape, she fled to China with her mother, crossing the Gobi Desert in subzero temperatures to reach Mongolia — finally finding a life free of tyranny in South Korea. Today, she is an American citizen and a leading voice of the oppressed around the world.

She became an international phenomenon at the 2014 Oslo Freedom Forum and the One Young World Summit in Dublin, delivering passionate and deeply personal speeches about the brutality of the North Korean regime. Her address to One Young World on the horrors of detention camps, political executions, and sex trafficking has been viewed over 320 million times, and her 2019 TED talk was a powerful reminder of the importance of knowledge, language, and seeking the light. She also recounts her incredible story in her searing memoir, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom.

One of the BBC’s “Top 100 Global Women,” Park’s resilience, determination, and relentless pursuit of a better future reinforce the life-changing importance of high-quality Learning at the Speed of Light for ALL. Don't miss her keynote at the 2025 ASU+GSV Summit, April 6-9 in San Diego!

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