GERSTELL ACADEMY
LEADERSHIP • HONOR • COURAGE

Current Events Club Hosts North Korean Refugee

Grace is one of 370 refugees from North Korea who have settled in the U.S. Ms. Jo’s presentation mesmerized the audience and the students learned firsthand of the torture and deprivation that Grace and her family endured.  Currently, Grace lives in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2013, Grace became a U.S. citizen. Alongside her family, she has protested the forced repatriation of North Korean escapees hiding out in China.  

Grace Jo was born in North Korea, a place where she almost starved to death as a child. Two of Grace’s younger brothers died of starvation. Grace’s father was tortured and starved to death. He passed away when North Korean agents transferred him from a detention center to a jail and his “crime” was that he left his country in search of food for his family. One of Grace’s older sisters went to China to find food for her family but went missing and was probably sold into human trafficking. Grace was repatriated twice to North Korea by the Chinese government, and suffered imprisonment after she was repatriated. Grace’s mother and one of Grace’s sisters were repatriated four times and suffered torture after repatriation. In 2006 Pastor Philip Buck bribed North Korean agents to let Grace and her two remaining family members escape North Korea. Grace discussed the differences between North Korea and the freedom that the United States represents, and should never take for granted. 
 
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