LOCKED away in a tiny prison cell after being caught trying to flee North Korea, 17-year-old Timothy Cho considered taking his own life, fearing he’d be executed if he was forced to return home.
After two months inside a hellish Shanghai jail, an international media storm triggered a miracle as Timothy was spared the firing squad and instead sent to the UK.
Timothy Cho, a North Korean defector, settled in the UK after fleeing the country twice Credit: Supplied
Timothy was born in Onsong during Kim Jong Il’s dictatorship in the 1980s Credit: Supplied
From witnessing a public execution at just 11 to defecting from North Korea twice, Timothy’s incredible story led him to run for council in Greater Manchester.
He told The Jattvibe about his daring bids to leave everything behind – and the torturous time he spent in prison after being caught.
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Timothy was born in Onsong during Kim Jong Il’s dictatorship in the 1980s and grew up with loving parents who were respected teachers in a small town near the Chinese border.
The period was marked by a brutal fight for survival during the catastrophic “Arduous March” famine and widespread state censorship of anything deemed Western.
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Timothy pictured meeting the Pope Credit: Supplied
One day, Timothy’s parents gave him an unusually long goodbye as he left for school.
That was the last time he ever saw them.
Asked how he knew he had been abandoned, Timothy said: “It was just instinct. I had a feeling… I cannot explain how I knew that, but I just had that feeling.”
He says his loving mother, who he eventually reunited with years later before she died in 2018, was one of the happiest parts of his childhood.
“I still miss her… I still carry her photos in my wallet,” Timothy said.
The day after he was left behind, a teacher told him: “Your father betrayed his country. You betrayed our dear supreme leaders.”
A young Timothy was ostracised, branded a traitor and bullied for his parents’ perceived unforgivable sin.
“I ran away from that school in tears, and I couldn’t go back,” he said.
Timothy Cho, a North Korean defector Credit: Instagram
South Korean Marines patrol the highly secure border with DPRK Credit: AP
A distraught and homeless Timothy then went on to sleep on the streets of North Korea.
Still just a boy, he took refuge at train stations and under dingy bridges at night.
“At one time I had a terrible flu. I expected I was going to die,” he said.
“I was determined. I didn’t want to die. But I don’t know why.”
During his childhood, Timothy and countless other children were subject to North Korea’s brainwashing efforts.
He said he saw someone face the firing squad when he was just 11 years old in the first of many public executions he was forced to witness.
Speaking about the first execution he remembers, Timothy said: “[He] was tied up on the post, but there was something stuffed into his mouth, probably stones… so he couldn’t express any final few words.”
He said he had nightmares of the terrifying killing, adding: “I couldn’t eat food all day… he kept coming back to me in my sleep for a few days.”
Timothy grew up with loving parents who were respected teachers in a small town Credit: Instagram/@timothycho2022
Life inside North Korea’s labour camps is a bleak and horrific existence
“This is a part of a fear coercion that you have to obey society and the Kim family.”
Timothy tried to block out the pain and join the army in order to redeem his place in society.
He was denied due to his parents and instead ordered to work arduous shifts at a dangerous coal mine.
“I was the son of a traitor, so they could feel that I could potentially turn away, turn against the Kim family,” he said.
Timothy soon realised that if he stayed in North Korea any longer, his children would face the same fate and be forced to endure a life of misery.
“And that’s why I decided to escape to China – maybe if I didn’t do it, my children, my next generation, would be following the same destiny,” he said.
Timothy had plans to escape into China and then reach Mongolia.
Stepping over the border for the first time, Timothy was confused by how much more vibrant life was outside of North Korea.
Timothy has stood for election as a councillor four times, most recently in Heatons North, part of Stockport Metropolitan borough council Credit: Instagram/@timothycho2022
Timothy went on to live in Bolton, picking up English by working in a soup kitchen at the age of 19, before getting his GCSEs and A-Levels Credit: Instagram/@timothycho2022
“I got shocked because that was the first time I saw people having colourful hair, haircuts, and all kinds of fashions,” he said.
“They were wearing English words written on them [their clothes], which are all completely banned in North Korea, and I was actually crying.”
He admits some of those tears were born out of frustration from the hard world he was born into.
Just before he reached the Mongolian border, Timothy remembers being spotted by Chinese military soldiers.
He said: “Chinese military soldiers started shooting in all directions… and the bullets came near us, and it looked like an action film.”
He was detained and thrown into a “tiny” cell with 50 others for two weeks.
At one point in the cramped room, he took a nap before waking up with a dead man leaning against him.
“He was very, very heavy, it just felt like a big giant rock was leaning against me… and I felt the blood was on my shirt,” Timothy said.
After being beaten and tortured for days on end, Timothy was miraculously sent to his grandmother’s house back in North Korea.
“I left that prison with scars, massive scars.”
He remembers before leaving speaking to a fellow North Korean woman who begged him to tell the world her story if he ever escaped.
Timothy said: “She told me: ‘Timothy, if you ever survive from here, you must tell the outside world how we were killed.’”
Former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il salutes to his troops during a military parade in Pyongyang in 2002 Credit: AFP – Getty
North Korean soldiers patrol next to the border fence with China Credit: Getty
“And I told her no, we would survive together. She didn’t survive… I was the only one who survived.”
On his second escape attempt, Timothy met with eight other North Korean women before making it to Shanghai – where they eventually entered an international school.
But instead of being helped, the pupils called the police and Timothy was once again hauled into a Chinese prison.
Thinking his luck would now run out, Timothy feared he would be sent back to North Korea again and certainly killed.
He said of his time in that cell: “I was crying… thinking of how I was going to take my own life during the repatriation.”
During this time, he met a South Korean gangster who taught him how to pray – and this became one of Timothy’s daily rituals, symbolising his last sliver of hope.
“I said, God, I don’t want to be killed, amen, I don’t want to go back to North Korea, amen, I want to get out from this prison,” he said.
“This is exactly what I needed.”
In a miraculous turn of events, Timothy was eventually informed he would be let out of jail and allowed to explore the Western world.
As it turned out, a journalist had been tipped off by a student at the school where Timothy and the other women were caught.
Their story made global headlines and forced the Chinese government to hand over the detainees to avoid further international scrutiny.
Timothy was jetted away to the Philippines and eventually chose to travel and settle in the UK.
He said: “I honestly didn’t know where the Philippines were, but it was not North Korea – my first reaction came that moment, thank God.”
“By the time I arrived here [the UK], I was full of scars myself and I didn’t want to think of Korea at all.”
Despite making the horror journey out of the regime, Timothy says he loves his home country: “I still love North Korea, it’s a beautiful country and people are still there.”
Timothy went on to live in Bolton, picking up English by working in a soup kitchen at the age of 19, before studying for and achieving GCSEs, A-levels, a university degree and then a Master’s.
He has stood for election as a councillor four times, most recently in Heatons North, part of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council.
The defector-turned-activist remembers one shocking moment a voter called Boris Johnson a “dictator” while he was out campaigning for the Tories in 2021.
He explained: “If it happened in North Korea, she would have been executed.”
Timothy says: “I have seen a number of miracles through my journey. This is why the participation in democracy is so important, which I mean is why I stood in an election.”
“If you don’t vote and you allow someone to control your path, once you realise your path has been controlled by someone and now you want to raise your voice, it’s too late.”
