She Escaped North Korea 3 Times. Half of Her Family Didn’t Survive | Grace Jo

Grace Jo was born in North Korea and nearly starved to death as a child during the country’s devastating famine in the 1990s.

Her father crossed into China in search of food for his family, only to be tortured and die after returning to North Korea. Her grandmother and two younger brothers died of starvation. And her oldest sister disappeared while searching for food. The family suspects she became a victim of human trafficking in China.

Jo still remembers that her grandmother’s dying wish was to eat a baked potato. It was a wish the family could not fulfill.

At six years old, Jo first crossed the Tumen River into China with her mother and sister. In China, they lived in hiding—ever fearful of being sent back to North Korea. Jo was repatriated twice before finally escaping North Korea for the last time.

Her story is a haunting account of survival, loss, and hope that shows the brutal reality of life under North Korea’s regime and the determination, resilience, and sheer luck it takes to escape it.

In 2008, with the help of a missionary, Jo, her mother, and her older sister made it to the United States. She became a U.S. citizen in 2013.

Today, she is the founder of the Broken Chains Foundation, formerly the Grace Jo Foundation. And through the Dissident Project, she speaks regularly at schools and other venues, sharing her story to educate young people about the realities of totalitarian and communist regimes.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.