[6] Panjoy was born in the village of Ban Nong Sae in Huai Sai, San Kamphaeng District, Chiang Mai Province, northern Thailand.

After graduating from high-school, Panjoy moved to Bangkok, and then to Macau where she worked as a massage therapist in a local hotel.

According to Charles Robert Jenkins, whose book (The Reluctant Communist) tells of the abduction as told to him by Panjoy.

[7][8] Shortly after her arrival in Pyongyang, Panjoy was forced to marry U.S. defector Larry Allen Abshier.

Panjoy continued to live close to the Jenkins family until 1989, when she married an East German businessman who worked for the government.

[2] Panjoy's family had no information about her condition until 2005, when her older brother recognised her in a photograph being held by Jenkins during a television interview.

In 2005, Panjoy's brother met Teruaki Masumoto, the secretary general of the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NAKRN).

In 2006, the city of Chiang Mai, near Panjoy's hometown staged a photo exhibition[14] to draw attention to her story.