A01=Kathi Zellweger
A01=Mike Chinoy
aid worker
Author_Kathi Zellweger
Author_Mike Chinoy
caregiver
Caritas
Category=DNBT
Category=NHT
charity
communist systems
development work
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
famine
forthcoming
humanitarian aid
humanitarian impact
Korean education
Korean issues
Korean peninsula
Korean studies
Korean work
medical
North Korea
North Korea isolation
Northeast Asia
Northeast Asia security issues
Pyongyang
relief aid
US foreign policy
Product details
- ISBN 9798895656716
- Weight: 242g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 08 Oct 2026
- Publisher: Post Hill Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The remarkable story of Swiss aid worker Kathi Zellweger, whose history of engagement with a secretive, isolated North Korea over nearly three decades is unprecedented in its scope, access, and humanitarian impact.
One of the first book-length accounts in English by an aid worker operating on the ground in North Korea, Miss Kathi chronicles the story of a woman who has lived out her commitment to the poor and most vulnerable—undaunted by the tensions and threat of conflict perpetually looming over the Korean peninsula.
For many North Koreans, Kathi Zellweger—a native of Switzerland—was the first foreigner they had ever met or even seen. Playing a central role in the early years of international relief efforts in North Korea was a lonely job, as Kathi addressed the humanitarian needs of a suffering people largely ignored by the world because of their citizenship. She befriended local doctors, nurses, and caregivers; negotiated with suspicious government officials; overcame international doubts about the diversion of relief supplies to the military; and, over a period of years, spearheaded an effort that provided food, medicine, and development aid. Ultimately, her efforts saved the lives of thousands of people—most of them children.
As one official in Pyongyang emotionally declared to her during a visit in the late 1990s, even though she was in no way a missionary, “Miss Kathi—you are the Mother Teresa of North Korea!”
One of the first book-length accounts in English by an aid worker operating on the ground in North Korea, Miss Kathi chronicles the story of a woman who has lived out her commitment to the poor and most vulnerable—undaunted by the tensions and threat of conflict perpetually looming over the Korean peninsula.
For many North Koreans, Kathi Zellweger—a native of Switzerland—was the first foreigner they had ever met or even seen. Playing a central role in the early years of international relief efforts in North Korea was a lonely job, as Kathi addressed the humanitarian needs of a suffering people largely ignored by the world because of their citizenship. She befriended local doctors, nurses, and caregivers; negotiated with suspicious government officials; overcame international doubts about the diversion of relief supplies to the military; and, over a period of years, spearheaded an effort that provided food, medicine, and development aid. Ultimately, her efforts saved the lives of thousands of people—most of them children.
As one official in Pyongyang emotionally declared to her during a visit in the late 1990s, even though she was in no way a missionary, “Miss Kathi—you are the Mother Teresa of North Korea!”
Kathi Zellweger is a senior aid manager with over thirty years of field experience in Hong Kong, China, and North Korea. She was based in Pyongyang for five years (2006–2011) as the North Korea country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), an office of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before joining SDC, from 1978 to 2006, Zellweger worked in a senior post for the Catholic Agency Caritas in Hong Kong, where she played a key role in pioneering Caritas’s involvement in China and North Korea.
She also managed the Hong Kong–based KorAid Limited, a nonprofit she established in 2015 to focus on serving children in institutions and people with disabilities in North Korea. Zellweger is affiliated with the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University in California. She holds a master’s degree in international administration from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Mike Chinoy is a nonresident scholar at the 21st Century China Center at the University of California, San Diego. Previously, he was a nonresident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute. Before joining USC, he spent twenty-four years as a foreign correspondent for CNN. He was the network’s first bureau chief in Beijing, bureau chief in Hong Kong, and senior Asia correspondent. He also worked for CBS News and NBC News in Hong Kong.
Chinoy won Emmy, DuPont, Peabody, and ACE awards for his coverage of China, and also made seventeen trips to North Korea. After leaving CNN, he was a senior fellow at the Los Angeles–based Pacific Council on International Policy, focusing on security issues in North Korea, China, and Northeast Asia before joining the USC US-China Institute. He is the author of five other books. He has an MS degree from Columbia and a BA from Yale.
She also managed the Hong Kong–based KorAid Limited, a nonprofit she established in 2015 to focus on serving children in institutions and people with disabilities in North Korea. Zellweger is affiliated with the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University in California. She holds a master’s degree in international administration from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Mike Chinoy is a nonresident scholar at the 21st Century China Center at the University of California, San Diego. Previously, he was a nonresident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute. Before joining USC, he spent twenty-four years as a foreign correspondent for CNN. He was the network’s first bureau chief in Beijing, bureau chief in Hong Kong, and senior Asia correspondent. He also worked for CBS News and NBC News in Hong Kong.
Chinoy won Emmy, DuPont, Peabody, and ACE awards for his coverage of China, and also made seventeen trips to North Korea. After leaving CNN, he was a senior fellow at the Los Angeles–based Pacific Council on International Policy, focusing on security issues in North Korea, China, and Northeast Asia before joining the USC US-China Institute. He is the author of five other books. He has an MS degree from Columbia and a BA from Yale.
