race Jo, Her Mother, & Pastor John
On Sunday I profile individuals who have demonstrated amazing bravery and courage. Grace Jo, her mother and Pastor John Yoon are such individuals.
First the background:
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, North Korea lost its biggest economic supporter, and so the flow of critical imports into North Korea stopped. The communist regime was unable to adapt, and the state-controlled economy collapsed.
The little food available was distributed by the regime according to each individual’s political standing and loyalty to the state. Particularly in the northern part of the country where Ms. Jo’s family was from, many were left to fend for themselves.
The following is a mere summary of the harrowing efforts of the Jo family to escape from North Korea.
Excerpts from the American Essence magazine:
In 1996 when Grace Jo’s grandmother caught six newborn mice near their home in North Korea, the whole family was overjoyed. Finally, one of them would have something to eat.
Little Grace was only 5 years old, and seriously malnourished. The famine in North Korea had been ravaging the country for half a decade, and the family of seven—mom, dad, grandma, and four siblings—sometimes spent up to 10 days with no food at all, surviving by just drinking water from a nearby stream.
So when the family found the mice, the adults had to make a big decision: Which child would get to eat them? Young Grace’s hair had turned yellow and dry, and she wasn’t able to walk properly due to being malnourished. So she was the chosen one to eat the mice, which were boiled and added to a soup with some grains of rice and corn. “We didn’t have salt, so it was a very plain flavor,” Ms. Jo, now 33, recalled.”
In the summer of 1998, Grandma also succumbed to starvation. Not long after the family buried her in the mountains, six government officials showed up and told Ms. Jo’s mother that they would be evicted from their home. “In North Korea, the house, the work, everything, will be assigned by the government,” Ms. Jo explained. “But they did not assign us a new home. And they kept asking us to leave, which meant we would become homeless.”
That’s when the mom decided to flee to China.
It wasn’t an easy journey, hiding both from people and wild animals that roamed the rocky mountain trails. But after three nights and four days on foot, they eventually made it to China.
Living in China wasn’t easy, as North Koreans are not considered refugees. Instead, they are repatriated if caught. So Ms. Jo, her older sister, and her mom had to live in hiding throughout the 10 years they spent in China.
They were repatriated on several occasions and ended up spending 13 months in a Chinese prison. That’s where they met the man who would eventually help them escape.
Pastor John Yoon grew up in what is now North Korea before the Korean War. He found his way to the south during the conflict and there, found faith. He decided to devote his life to ministry work. While in China, he realized he could help North Koreans to escape.
It was a dangerous endeavor that put his life at risk, and after being discovered, he ended up in the same Chinese prison as Ms. Jo and her family.
Subsequently after getting to America, Pastor John organized a fundraising campaign to help rescue the Jo family and raised $10,000, which he used to bribe North Korean officials. The Jos were released near the border with China. Again, they crossed the Tumen River and spent two months in hiding. Once they got the chance to drive the 860 miles to Beijing, they received protection from the United Nations. From there, they were able to fly to America as refugees in 2008.
Ms. Jo is now an American citizen and human rights activist dedicated to telling youth about the horrors of living under a communist regime. “We don’t want that similar thing to happen in America,” she said.
Grace Jo also founded a nonprofit, the Grace Jo Foundation, to help North Korean kids who resettle in America and other countries to adjust to their new lives and have a good education.“I’m hoping to help those North Korean children to become leaders because they will be the first ones who will go back to North Korea once North Korea opens its doors, and they will become the bridge between North Korea and the world.”
7/21/24
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