Joo Seong-ha (Korean: 주성하) is a journalist from North Korea who defected to South Korea in 2002. Currently he is working as a reporter in the international affairs department of the newspaper, the Dong-a Ilbo.

Biography

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.

Published works

• 《평양 자본주의 백과전서》(2018)
• 《세계의 명문 직업학교를 가다》
• 《외국특파원들이 본 두 개의 코리아》
• 《서울에서 쓰는 평양 이야기 : 김일성대학 나온 <동아일보> 기자 주성하》