Two Escapes, Four Prisons, and One Miracle: Life Inside North Korea
Written By Paul Romano
In 1996, a nine-year-old boy named Timothy Cho returned from school to an empty house that would define the rest of his life. His home, a modest teacher’s residence just 100 meters from the Tumen River border in North Korea, was cold and empty. On the dinner table sat a note from his parents: they had fled across the river to China. In a nation where the "crimes" of the parents are visited upon the children with biblical severity, Timothy’s identity was erased in an afternoon. He was no longer a student; he was the "son of traitors," and now destined for the streets.
While the modern world lives in a state of hyper-connectivity, North Korea remains a "Great Darkness"—a literal void on satellite maps and a metaphorical black hole of human rights. It is a nation sealed by fear, starvation, and silence. Timothy Cho is one of the few who survived the journey from the "hostile class" of a prison state to freedom in the West.
The Kims are Not Just Leaders—They are Literal gods in North Korea
In the West, we view the Kim dynasty through the lens of political authoritarianism. For a North Korean child, however, the Kims are divine. This indoctrination begins in the nursery, where toddlers are taught to bow to portraits and thank the "Great Leader" for their meager bowls of food before their own parents.
When the nation's founder, Kim Il Sung, died in 1994, seven-year-old Timothy was consumed by existential dread. He spent three nights in tears, paralyzed by the conviction that the end of the world had arrived. This spiritual monopoly is maintained through a carefully crafted mythology: the birth of the "Second Kim" was portrayed with celestial omens—a giant star appearing over his birthplace—designed to mimic and replace the story of Jesus.
"I genuinely believed our God died... I asked my father, ‘Are we going to die because our God died?’ He told me, ‘No son... he lives in our hearts forever.’"
The "Hunger Games" District System is Real
Timothy describes his homeland as a real-life Hunger Games, where survival is dictated by the Songbun—a rigid social stratification system. Society is divided into three primary classes, but the true horror lies in the details: the regime utilizes over 50 subcategories of classification to determine a citizen’s worth.
Core Class: The elite and party loyalists who enjoy the relative "luxury" of Pyongyang. 28% of the population that includes professional revolutionaries, descendants of ‘war heroes’ who died working or fighting for the North, peasants or those from peasant families. (1)
Wavering Class: The middle tier, tolerated but under constant ideological scrutiny. This class makes up 45% of the population and includes people who had previously lived in South Korea or China, those with relatives who went to the South, families of small-scale merchants, intellectuals, practitioners of superstition, etc.
Hostile/Enemy Class: The "sons of traitors" like Timothy. They make up 27% of the population that includes descendants of landlords, capitalists, religious people, political prisoners, those who had assisted South Korean forces during the Korean War, or were otherwise judged anti-Party or associated with external powers. They are barred from higher education and the military.
This hierarchy is enforced by a pervasive surveillance culture. Towns are partitioned into numbered districts where a supervisor monitors every 40 families. It is a world where "another person behind my shoulder is watching me as well," and even a trip to a neighboring village requires travel permissions that can take six months to secure.
Public Executions are a Mandatory "Educational" Event
The regime does not hide its brutality; it broadcasts it as a tool. At age 11, Timothy was summoned to the town square alongside hundreds of others. In a move of calculated psychological trauma, the state ordered all children to sit in the front row.
The execution Timothy witnessed was visceral and systematic. The condemned man was tied to a post. A firing squad of three officers, armed with AK-47s, delivered three volleys of three bullets each. The first set was aimed at the eyes, the second at the belly button, and the third at the knees. The intent was not just to kill, but to "normalize" the total destruction of those who betray the state.
"Hundreds of crowd people gathered, but specifically told all children come out, sit at the front of the crowd... the first bullet, it went into the eyes. The eyes was covered and the bullet popped out the eyes."
The Shock of Color and Light Beyond the Border
Crossing into China was not merely a physical transition for Timothy; it was a sensory explosion. After seventeen years in a landscape of concrete and "Great Darkness," Timothy’s first escape from North Korea took place in 2004 when he was 17 years old. Facing a future of forced labour in a coal mine because of his father’s defection, Timothy decided he had no future in his home country and chose to flee.
Timothy crossed the Tumen River into China at night with a small group of people. They successfully reached the other side in about half an hour, narrowly avoiding being discovered or shot by border guards.
Upon arriving in a Chinese border city, Timothy experienced profound culture shock. For the first time in his life, he saw spinning, colourful lights, heard music in the streets, and saw people with exotic hairstyles and denim jeans. This experience made him realise that the North Korean state’s propaganda—which claimed his home was the best country in the world—was a lie.
Encounter with Missionaries
Shortly after arriving in China, Timothy met a Christian missionary who offered him help. However, Timothy was terrified because of the intense anti-Christian brainwashing he had received in North Korea. Seeing a cross and a Bible for the first time, he feared they were a curse and believed that touching them would cause his fingers to rot. Suspecting the missionary was a human trafficker kidnapping North Korean children, Timothy fled the safe house.
By denying access to the internet, international media, and even diverse hairstyles, the state ensures that its citizens cannot imagine an alternative to their own suffering. When a human being is kept in a locked cage for their entire life, the sudden exposure to the "prosperity" of a common border town can be as psychologically devastating as it is liberating.
Timothy eventually joined a group of 17 other North Koreans (making 18 total) to attempt to reach Mongolia, where they could seek asylum. The group included two families with children as young as four and six years old.
As they approached the Mongolian border at night, they were ambushed by the Chinese military. Soldiers opened fire, and Timothy recalled seeing bullets hitting the sand near his feet as children screamed in terror. The entire group was arrested.
Repatriation and Imprisonment
The group was forcibly sent back to North Korea. During the four-day bus journey back to the border, the boys were handcuffed and their legs were tied to prevent any escape attempts. Once back in North Korea, Timothy was placed in a brutal detention centre. He was held in an underground, cramped cell with approximately 50 other people. The conditions were horrific, there was no space to lie down; inmates had to sleep sitting upright, leaning against one another. One night, a man leaning against Timothy’s back died from starvation and torture. Timothy did not realise the man was dead until his heavy body slumped over.
Release
Timothy was the only one of the 18 people in his group to survive and be released. He suspects he was let go because he was still legally a minor. When he was finally released to his grandmother’s house, he was so badly injured from the torture and starvation that he could not walk or sit down properly. Despite this trauma, he remained under constant 24/7 surveillance by the local authorities.
Second Attempt
Timothy’s second escape, which took place in 2006 when he was 19 years old, driven by the constant 24/7 surveillance of the North Korean authorities and the trauma of his first repatriation, Timothy decided to flee again. At 3:00 AM, with the help of his grandmother and a lady from his village, he crossed the Tumen River back into China.
Once in China, Timothy received medical treatment before traveling 1,200 miles by bus and train to Shanghai using forged IDs. He was part of a group of nine North Korean refugees, including eight women.
The Shanghai American School Incident
Timothy’s plan was to reach the Shanghai American School, believing that its international status would provide diplomatic protection and prevent his deportation. During lunchtime, the group climbed the school's high fence and entered the grounds. They carried a note in English that read: "We are North Korean refugees, please help us". While the school principal initially suggested he would call the US Embassy, he ultimately informed the group that the school was not a diplomatic centre and allowed Chinese police to enter. The refugees formed a human chain on the floor to resist. However, dozens of police officers used force to drag them away, beating the women and pulling their hair while school children watched in tears.
Imprisonment and Suicide Attempt
Believing that being sent back to North Korea a second time—especially after seeking help from an American institution—would lead to immediate execution, Timothy attempted to end his own life. In the Shanghai police station toilet, he swallowed a stash of sleeping pills he had hidden in his clothes. He collapsed, expecting to die, but woke up later in the Shanghai International Prison, having survived the attempt.
The "Miracle" in Prison
While in a cell with inmates from various countries, Timothy met a South Korean ex- gangster in the Shanghai International Prison. This man, covered in giant tattoos gave Timothy a Bible and taught him the only prayer he knew: to simply say "Amen" at the end of his wishes. It was in this cell that Timothy found the verse that finally penetrated his heart: John 14:18.
"I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you."
Unknown to Timothy, a 13-year-old student at the American school who had witnessed the arrest wrote a heartfelt email to a journalist. This sparked a massive international media campaign involving the BBC, CNN, and the Washington Post, leading to global protests at Chinese embassies.
Release and Freedom
Due to the intense international pressure, the Chinese government made the rare decision to deport the group to the Philippines instead of repatriating them to North Korea. Timothy eventually traveled to the United Kingdom in 2008, where he was granted asylum and began a new life as a human rights advocate.
The Enduring Power of Love and Forgiveness
Today, Timothy Cho’s life is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. and the grace of God guiding him through the trials he has faced. He has transitioned from a homeless child sleeping in train containers to a man working in the shadow of the British Parliament.
Several years ago, Timothy received a call on a public bus in Manchester. It was his dying mother in South Korea. Her body was paralyzed, and she had one final question for the son she had left behind in the dark: "Son, could you forgive me?"
Timothy chose to say yes. His mother passed away two weeks later, on Easter Sunday—a day Timothy views as a beautiful bookend of redemption. By choosing forgiveness over the cycle of hatred instilled by the regime, he proved that the power of love is ultimately more enduring than the power of any dictator.
Sources:
(1) https://libertyinnorthkorea.org/blog/songbun
https://youtu.be/gkPwa8AgIQo?list=TLGGsZMgQIU6m1QyMzAyMjAyNg
https://youtu.be/FwkdMRUZgcI?list=TLGGY1gKeYZcq4QyMzAyMjAyNg
https://youtu.be/PWMoEuFs_eQ?list=TLGGyuf8SXXLNr0yMzAyMjAyNg
https://youtu.be/mFmXBiH79B0?list=TLGGPXsBItbJvnUyMzAyMjAyNg
https://youtu.be/6UAZVmN7Lb0?list=TLGGGAyEA6bD3RcyMzAyMjAyNg
https://youtu.be/5GXQJ1m4TlI?list=TLGGWtqOYaeuPOcyMzAyMjAyNg
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