0:00:00.965,0:00:04.468
I was born and raised in North Korea.

0:00:04.468,0:00:09.268
Although my family constantly struggled against poverty,

0:00:09.268,0:00:12.796
I was always loved and cared for first,

0:00:12.796,0:00:14.947
because I was the only son

0:00:14.947,0:00:18.117
and the youngest of two in the family.

0:00:18.117,0:00:21.724
But then the great famine began in 1994.

0:00:21.724,0:00:24.183
I was four years old.

0:00:24.183,0:00:27.980
My sister and I would go searching for firewood

0:00:27.980,0:00:29.956
starting at 5 in the morning

0:00:29.956,0:00:32.762
and come back after midnight.

0:00:32.762,0:00:36.650
I would wander the streets searching for food,

0:00:36.650,0:00:38.823
and I remember seeing a small child

0:00:38.823,0:00:41.645
tied to a mother's back eating chips,

0:00:41.645,0:00:44.869
and wanting to steal them from him.

0:00:44.869,0:00:49.702
Hunger is humiliation. Hunger is hopelessness.

0:00:49.702,0:00:52.905
For a hungry child, politics and freedom

0:00:52.905,0:00:55.657
are not even thought of.

0:00:55.657,0:00:58.345
On my ninth birthday, my parents

0:00:58.345,0:01:01.774
couldn't give me any food to eat.

0:01:01.774,0:01:05.718
But even as a child, I could feel the heaviness

0:01:05.718,0:01:08.753
in their hearts.

0:01:08.753,0:01:13.953
Over a million North Koreans died of starvation in that time,

0:01:13.968,0:01:17.664
and in 2003, when I was 13 years old,

0:01:17.664,0:01:20.577
my father became one of them.

0:01:20.577,0:01:24.465
I saw my father wither away and die.

0:01:24.465,0:01:28.597
In the same year, my mother disappeared one day,

0:01:28.597,0:01:30.402
and then my sister told me

0:01:30.402,0:01:33.003
that she was going to China to earn money,

0:01:33.003,0:01:37.198
but that she would return with money and food soon.

0:01:37.198,0:01:40.149
Since we had never been separated,

0:01:40.149,0:01:43.119
and I thought we would be together forever,

0:01:43.119,0:01:46.992
I didn't even give her a hug when she left.

0:01:46.992,0:01:51.205
It was the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life.

0:01:51.205,0:01:52.916
But again, I didn't know

0:01:52.916,0:01:56.404
it was going to be a long goodbye.

0:01:56.404,0:02:01.341
I have not seen my mom or my sister since then.

0:02:01.341,0:02:05.560
Suddenly, I became an orphan and homeless.

0:02:05.560,0:02:08.649
My daily life became very hard,

0:02:08.649,0:02:10.701
but very simple.

0:02:10.701,0:02:14.724
My goal was to find a dusty piece of bread in the trash.

0:02:14.724,0:02:17.631
But that is no way to survive.

0:02:17.631,0:02:22.349
I started to realize, begging would not be the solution.

0:02:22.349,0:02:27.675
So I started to steal from food carts in illegal markets.

0:02:27.675,0:02:30.640
Sometimes, I found small jobs

0:02:30.640,0:02:32.970
in exchange for food.

0:02:32.970,0:02:36.116
Once, I even spent two months in the winter

0:02:36.116,0:02:37.859
working in a coal mine,

0:02:37.859,0:02:43.634
33 meters underground without any protection

0:02:43.634,0:02:47.067
for up to 16 hours a day.

0:02:47.067,0:02:49.431
I was not uncommon.

0:02:49.431,0:02:56.992
Many other orphans survived this way, or worse.

0:02:56.992,0:03:01.128
When I could not fall asleep from bitter cold

0:03:01.128,0:03:02.595
or hunger pains,

0:03:02.595,0:03:05.443
I hoped that, the next morning,

0:03:05.443,0:03:08.006
my sister would come back to wake me up

0:03:08.006,0:03:10.276
with my favorite food.

0:03:10.276,0:03:13.426
That hope kept me alive.

0:03:13.426,0:03:16.224
I don't mean big, grand hope.

0:03:16.224,0:03:19.346
I mean the kind of hope that made me believe

0:03:19.346,0:03:21.809
that the next trash can had bread,

0:03:21.809,0:03:24.942
even though it usually didn't.

0:03:24.942,0:03:28.385
But if I didn't believe it, I wouldn't even try,

0:03:28.385,0:03:30.478
and then I would die.

0:03:30.478,0:03:34.416
Hope kept me alive.

0:03:34.416,0:03:37.176
Every day, I told myself,

0:03:37.176,0:03:39.904
no matter how hard things got,

0:03:39.904,0:03:43.806
still I must live.

0:03:43.806,0:03:47.936
After three years of waiting for my sister's return,

0:03:47.936,0:03:52.288
I decided to go to China to look for her myself.

0:03:52.288,0:03:55.148
I realized

0:03:55.148,0:03:58.798
I couldn't survive much longer this way.

0:03:58.798,0:04:01.603
I knew the journey would be risky,

0:04:01.603,0:04:04.500
but I would be risking my life either way.

0:04:04.500,0:04:08.686
I could die of starvation like my father in North Korea,

0:04:08.686,0:04:12.144
or at least I could try for a better life

0:04:12.144,0:04:15.380
by escaping to China.

0:04:15.380,0:04:18.610
I had learned that many people tried to cross

0:04:18.610,0:04:23.397
the border to China in the nighttime to avoid being seen.

0:04:23.397,0:04:27.355
North Korean border guards often shoot and kill people

0:04:27.355,0:04:30.728
trying to cross the border without permission.

0:04:30.728,0:04:33.379
Chinese soldiers will catch

0:04:33.379,0:04:35.233
and send back North Koreans,

0:04:35.233,0:04:39.573
where they face severe punishment.

0:04:39.573,0:04:42.654
I decided to cross during the day,

0:04:42.654,0:04:48.087
first because I was still a kid and scared of the dark,

0:04:48.087,0:04:52.736
second because I knew I was already taking a risk,

0:04:52.736,0:04:56.151
and since not many people tried to cross during the day,

0:04:56.151,0:04:57.841
I thought I might be able to cross

0:04:57.841,0:05:01.266
without being seen by anyone.

0:05:01.266,0:05:05.174
I made it to China on February 15, 2006.

0:05:05.174,0:05:07.402
I was 16 years old.

0:05:07.402,0:05:10.322
I thought things in China would be easier,

0:05:10.322,0:05:13.595
since there was more food.

0:05:13.595,0:05:16.651
I thought more people would help me.

0:05:16.651,0:05:20.664
But it was harder than living in North Korea,

0:05:20.664,0:05:22.359
because I was not free.

0:05:22.359,0:05:25.104
I was always worried about being caught

0:05:25.104,0:05:27.899
and sent back.

0:05:27.899,0:05:31.170
By a miracle, some months later,

0:05:31.170,0:05:32.613
I met someone who was running

0:05:32.613,0:05:35.955
an underground shelter for North Koreans,

0:05:35.955,0:05:38.563
and was allowed to live there

0:05:38.563,0:05:43.915
and eat regular meals for the first time in many years.

0:05:43.915,0:05:48.396
Later that year, an activist helped me escape China

0:05:48.396,0:05:52.617
and go to the United States as a refugee.

0:05:52.617,0:05:55.917
I went to America without knowing a word of English,

0:05:55.917,0:06:00.296
yet my social worker told me that I had to go to high school.

0:06:00.296,0:06:04.495
Even in North Korea, I was an F student.

0:06:04.495,0:06:05.879
(Laughter)

0:06:05.879,0:06:09.586
And I barely finished elementary school.

0:06:09.586,0:06:12.890
And I remember I fought in school more than once a day.

0:06:12.890,0:06:16.828
Textbooks and the library were not my playground.

0:06:16.828,0:06:20.573
My father tried very hard to motivate me into studying,

0:06:20.573,0:06:23.124
but it didn't work.

0:06:23.124,0:06:26.267
At one point, my father gave up on me.

0:06:26.267,0:06:30.236
He said, "You're not my son anymore."

0:06:30.236,0:06:34.988
I was only 11 or 12, but it hurt me deeply.

0:06:34.988,0:06:37.649
But nevertheless, my level of motivation

0:06:37.649,0:06:42.356
still didn't change before he died.

0:06:42.356,0:06:45.161
So in America, it was kind of ridiculous

0:06:45.161,0:06:48.188
that they said I should go to high school.

0:06:48.188,0:06:50.612
I didn't even go to middle school.

0:06:50.612,0:06:53.996
I decided to go, just because they told me to,

0:06:53.996,0:06:56.404
without trying much.

0:06:56.404,0:06:59.817
But one day, I came home and my foster mother

0:06:59.817,0:07:03.026
had made chicken wings for dinner.

0:07:03.026,0:07:06.280
And during dinner, I wanted to have one more wing,

0:07:06.280,0:07:09.476
but I realized there were not enough for everyone,

0:07:09.476,0:07:12.973
so I decided against it.

0:07:12.973,0:07:15.298
When I looked down at my plate,

0:07:15.298,0:07:20.434
I saw the last chicken wing, that my foster father had given me his.

0:07:20.434,0:07:22.752
I was so happy.

0:07:22.752,0:07:25.015
I looked at him sitting next to me.

0:07:25.015,0:07:28.331
He just looked back at me very warmly,

0:07:28.331,0:07:31.003
but said no words.

0:07:31.003,0:07:35.847
Suddenly I remembered my biological father.

0:07:35.847,0:07:38.820
My foster father's small act of love

0:07:38.820,0:07:41.041
reminded me of my father,

0:07:41.041,0:07:44.041
who would love to share his food with me

0:07:44.041,0:07:48.678
when he was hungry, even if he was starving.

0:07:48.678,0:07:53.010
I felt so suffocated that I had so much food in America,

0:07:53.010,0:07:56.477
yet my father died of starvation.

0:07:56.477,0:08:00.680
My only wish that night was to cook a meal for him,

0:08:00.680,0:08:04.171
and that night I also thought of what else I could do

0:08:04.171,0:08:06.387
to honor him.

0:08:06.387,0:08:09.121
And my answer was to promise to myself

0:08:09.121,0:08:12.551
that I would study hard and get the best education

0:08:12.551,0:08:16.115
in America to honor his sacrifice.

0:08:16.115,0:08:18.651
I took school seriously,

0:08:18.651,0:08:21.451
and for the first time ever in my life,

0:08:21.451,0:08:25.348
I received an academic award for excellence,

0:08:25.348,0:08:30.962
and made dean's list from the first semester in high school.

0:08:30.962,0:08:38.594
(Applause)

0:08:38.594,0:08:41.324
That chicken wing changed my life.

0:08:41.324,0:08:45.381
(Laughter)

0:08:45.381,0:08:48.973
Hope is personal. Hope is something

0:08:48.973,0:08:51.482
that no one can give to you.

0:08:51.482,0:08:54.402
You have to choose to believe in hope.

0:08:54.402,0:08:57.569
You have to make it yourself.

0:08:57.569,0:09:00.809
In North Korea, I made it myself.

0:09:00.809,0:09:03.522
Hope brought me to America.

0:09:03.522,0:09:06.522
But in America, I didn't know what to do,

0:09:06.522,0:09:11.554
because I had this overwhelming freedom.

0:09:11.554,0:09:15.605
My foster father at that dinner gave me a direction,

0:09:15.605,0:09:19.131
and he motivated me and gave me a purpose

0:09:19.131,0:09:23.058
to live in America.

0:09:23.058,0:09:26.178
I did not come here by myself.

0:09:26.178,0:09:31.132
I had hope, but hope by itself is not enough.

0:09:31.132,0:09:35.286
Many people helped me along the way to get here.

0:09:35.286,0:09:39.274
North Koreans are fighting hard to survive.

0:09:39.274,0:09:42.063
They have to force themselves to survive,

0:09:42.063,0:09:44.818
have hope to survive,

0:09:44.818,0:09:49.579
but they cannot make it without help.

0:09:49.579,0:09:51.925
This is my message to you.

0:09:51.925,0:09:54.634
Have hope for yourself,

0:09:54.634,0:09:57.746
but also help each other.

0:09:57.746,0:10:04.328
Life can be hard for everyone, wherever you live.

0:10:04.328,0:10:08.114
My foster father didn't intend to change my life.

0:10:08.114,0:10:12.486
In the same way, you may also change someone's life

0:10:12.486,0:10:17.006
with even the smallest act of love.

0:10:17.006,0:10:22.124
A piece of bread can satisfy your hunger,

0:10:22.124,0:10:25.225
and having the hope will bring you bread

0:10:25.225,0:10:27.510
to keep you alive.

0:10:27.510,0:10:30.727
But I confidently believe that

0:10:30.727,0:10:34.185
your act of love and caring

0:10:34.185,0:10:37.589
can also save another Joseph's life

0:10:37.589,0:10:43.031
and change thousands of other Josephs

0:10:43.031,0:10:47.033
who are still having hope to survive.

0:10:47.033,0:10:48.340
Thank you.

0:10:48.340,0:10:57.438
(Applause)

0:11:24.561,0:11:27.386
Adrian Hong: Joseph, thank you for sharing

0:11:27.386,0:11:30.568
that very personal and special story with us.

0:11:30.568,0:11:33.793
I know you haven't seen your sister for, you said,

0:11:33.793,0:11:36.253
it was almost exactly a decade,

0:11:36.253,0:11:38.670
and in the off chance that she may be able to see this,

0:11:38.670,0:11:40.497
we wanted to give you an opportunity

0:11:40.497,0:11:42.725
to send her a message.

0:11:42.725,0:11:43.861
Joseph Kim: In Korean?

0:11:43.861,0:11:46.469
AH: You can do English, then Korean as well.

0:11:46.469,0:11:50.377
(Laughter)

0:11:50.377,0:11:52.718
JK: Okay, I'm not going to make it any longer in Korean

0:11:52.718,0:11:55.459
because I don't think I can make it

0:11:55.459,0:11:59.115
without tearing up.

0:11:59.115,0:12:03.836
Nuna, it has been already 10 years

0:12:03.836,0:12:10.357
that I haven’t seen you.

0:12:10.357,0:12:13.749
I just wanted to say

0:12:13.749,0:12:17.933
that I miss you, and I love you,

0:12:17.933,0:12:22.276
and please come back to me and stay alive.

0:12:22.276,0:12:27.162
And I -- oh, gosh.

0:12:27.162,0:12:31.482
I still haven't given up my hope to see you.

0:12:33.591,0:12:38.253
I will live my life happily

0:12:38.253,0:12:41.572
and study hard

0:12:41.572,0:12:43.649
until I see you,

0:12:43.649,0:12:48.228
and I promise I will not cry again.

0:12:48.228,0:12:49.785
(Laughter)

0:12:49.785,0:12:52.373
Yes, I'm just looking forward to seeing you,

0:12:52.373,0:12:54.644
and if you can't find me,

0:12:54.644,0:12:57.716
I will also look for you,

0:12:57.716,0:13:00.452
and I hope to see you one day.

0:13:00.452,0:13:03.788
And can I also make a small message to my mom?

0:13:03.788,0:13:05.439
AH: Sure, please.

0:13:05.439,0:13:08.228
JK: I haven't spent much time with you,

0:13:08.228,0:13:10.140
but I know that you still love me,

0:13:10.140,0:13:13.084
and you probably still pray for me

0:13:13.084,0:13:16.204
and think about me.

0:13:16.204,0:13:18.356
I just wanted to say thank you

0:13:18.356,0:13:21.890
for letting me be in this world.

0:13:21.890,0:13:23.359
Thank you.

0:13:23.359,0:13:28.683
(Applause)