Currently he is working as a reporter in the international affairs department of the newspaper, the Dong-a Ilbo.
Joo was born and grew up in a small, rural fishing village of eastern DPRK in the 1970s.
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.
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.