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Thanks to the testimonies of North Koreans who have escaped their prison of a homeland in the past 25 years, the world is aware of the Kim-family regime’s atrocities against its own people. A chilling United Nations report a few years ago observed that North Korea’s crimes against humanity “do not have any parallel in the contemporary world.��

It is one thing to hear pronouncements from investigating organizations about the everyday horrors of life in North Korea. It is quite another to read personal accounts. “The Hard Road Out�� by Jihyun Park and Seh-lynn Chai is the latest in a series of searing memoirs by North Koreans who beat the odds and reached safety in free countries. Ms. Park and her South Korean co-author relate Ms. Park’s awful story in clear-eyed, unsentimental prose. It is a gripping read.