Joo was born and grew up in a small, rural fishing village of eastern DPRK in the 1970s. He has kept his exact date of birth and birthplace secret. He graduated from Kim Il-sung University, majoring in English.[1] Prior to his escape, he was arrested and spent time in concentration camps before finally escaping from the North in 1998. After naturalization as a South Korean citizen in 2002, he began work in the international affairs department of the Dong-a Ilbo at the end of 2003. In March 2009, he was confirmed as a specialist reporter on North Korean affairs and has composed articles related to North Korea on top of regular international affairs coverage.
Joo operates a reporter's blog called『서울에서 쓰는 평양이야기』("Pyongyang Story Written in Seoul"),[2] one of the most widely read online information channels about North Korea that has attracted 69 million page views as of October 3, 2015.[3] Furthermore, despite North Korea's repeated murder threats for whom the country deems a traitor, Joo continues to broadcast every week information from the outside world across the border to North Koreans, via Radio Free Asia.
