CaliToday (26/11/2025): Representative Young Kim (R-CA), one of the first Korean-American women to serve in Congress, delivered a blistering warning to the American public on Tuesday: The socialist policies gaining traction in U.S. cities are not a path to progress, but a slide toward the very tyranny her family risked everything to escape.
Speaking with personal intensity, Rep. Kim argued that for her, the debate over socialism versus capitalism is not academic it is a matter of life and death, defined by the harrowing history of the Korean Peninsula.
A Tale of Two Koreas: "Light vs. Darkness"
Kim urged Americans to look at a satellite map of the Korean Peninsula at night to understand the true cost of conflicting ideologies.
The South: A glowing beacon of technology, opportunity, and prosperity, fueled by free-market democracy.
The North: A void of total darkness, poverty, and oppression, ruled by a communist dictatorship.
"I have seen the consequences of communism firsthand," Kim declared. "Socialism has not just failed; it has led to catastrophe, starvation, imprisonment, and the deaths of over 100 million people worldwide. We cannot allow this history to repeat itself here."
The DMZ and the Cost of Freedom
The Congresswoman shared a deeply personal chapter of her family’s history to illustrate the stakes. She recounted the bravery of her mother-in-law, who lived through the terror of the Korean War.
In a feat of unimaginable courage, her mother-in-law crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) one of the most heavily fortified borders on earth—multiple times. She risked execution not for politics, but for love, making the perilous journey to rescue family members trapped in the North before the border was sealed forever.
"That is the reality of the system some are now trying to glamorize," Kim noted.
A "Taste" of Liberty
Kim also reflected on her own childhood in post-war South Korea, offering a poignant memory that shaped her view of the United States. She recalled the American soldiers stationed there to protect the fragile democracy.
"I remember the U.S. soldiers handing out candy to us children," she reminisced. To a young girl in a war-torn land, that candy was more than a treat; it was a tangible symbol of American generosity and the abundance that comes with freedom a sharp contrast to the scarcity of the North.
The Warning for America
Transitioning to the present, Rep. Kim expressed deep alarm at the shifting political landscape in the United States. She pointed specifically to the recent election of a Mayor with "communist tendencies" in the nation’s largest city (an apparent reference to political shifts in New York) as a dangerous signal.
"To see socialist ideas spreading here, in the land of the free, is terrifying," she said.
Kim’s Call to Action:
Reject the "Socialist Mirage": She argued that promises of government-run utopias always end in shared misery.
Defend the Free Market: Kim insisted that only the free enterprise system allows individuals to rise from poverty to prosperity.
Protect the American Dream: "This freedom, this opportunity it is only possible here. I will fight every day to ensure the American Dream survives for the next generation."
For Young Kim, the mission is clear: America must remain the "city on a hill," not follow the path into the darkness she knows too well.